Art Institute of Chicago

Jar with Two Plumed or Horned Serpents with Birds and P-shaped Motifs

Casas Grandes, Ramos Polychrome

Date

1280–1450

Medium

Ceramic and pigment

Culture

New Mexico

Department

Arts of the Americas

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Zigzagging around the surface of this jar are two abstract serpents with plumes or horns emerging from their red heads, gaping mouths, and bodies filled with checkerboard patterns, triangles, concentric circles, and fine-line hatchings. Feathered or horned serpents were supernatural beings combining the attributes of snakes and birds. Serpents, able to move between the surface and interior of the earth, and birds that fly into the air were agents of communication between the human world, the tiers of the cosmos, and the sacred forces seen and experienced in the natural landscape.

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