photo of the deer effigy bottle on display at museum - front profile view “This stirrup-spout bottle depicts a deer embracing two fawns as if they were human offspring. Moche artists were highly skilled at depicting realistic images of humans, animals, and plants, but occasionally elements are combined in ways that are distinctly imaginative. Here, the potter carefully represented a white-tailed doe, recognizable by the markings on the creature’s coat. Details of the deer such as the erect ears, antlers, and hooves were modeled and painted using red and white slips (suspensions of clay and/or other colorants in water). Deer are often represented in Moche ceramics. Scenes of deer hunting are painted on the surfaces of some pots in a style known as fineline (Donnan and McClelland, 1999: 104, fig. 4.54). Modeled representations of seated deer are also known; sometimes they hold lime containers—part of the paraphernalia for chewing coca (see, for example, a work in the Cleveland Museum of Art, 2008.1). Scholars are unsure whether these seated deer represent prey to be consumed or whether deer had special symbolic or metaphorical meanings for Moche viewers.” https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/308409
photo of the deer effigy bottle on display at museum - quarter turn side profile view
photo of the gallery label “Moche artists); North Coast, Peru Stirrup-spout bottle with deer 500-800 CE Ceramic, slip Gift of Nathan Cummings, 1963 (63.226.7) Recorded provenance: Bruno J. Wassermann-San Blas Collection, Buenos Aires, acquired by 1938, until 1954; Nathan Cummings, Chicago, 1954-63 Sculpted in the shape of a deer holding two fawns to its chest, this bottle combines realistic details of the animal's body, such as hooves, with imaginative leaps: the deer sits cross-legged, cradling its offspring as a human would. This maternal scene is a reminder that for the Moche, deer were comparable to people, and were often depicted as warriors.”
Stirrup-spout bottle with #deer
Moche culture, North Coast, Peru, 500-800 CE
Ceramic, slip; H. 11 × W. 5 1/2 × D. 8 1/2 in. (27.9 × 14 × 21.6 cm)
On display at Metropolitan Museum of Art NY (63.226.7)
#IndigenousArt #AndeanArt #PeruvianArt
