Cleveland Museum of Art

Vessel with Abstract Heads

Date

100 BCE–700 CE

Medium

earthenware with colored slips

Culture

Peru, South Coast, Nasca

Department

Art of the Americas

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Late Nasca supernatural depictions became abstract, detailed, and focused on the head. In this vessel's central register, for instance, a deity is reduced to two mask-like faces, edged by volutes and linked by tongues; the only remains of a body are the hands. The lower register carries a similar image, and the upper register has severed human heads.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.