Cleveland Museum of Art

Bound Deer Effigy Vessel

Date

1000–1460s

Medium

Ceramic

Culture

Andes, North Coast, Chimú people

Department

Art of the Americas

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This vessel was made by an artist of the Chimú Empire of Peru’s north coast. In the art of the Moche, an earlier culture in the region, the deer had complex symbolism related to ritual combat and the capture of prisoners. A memory of that symbolism may survive here in the binding of the deer’s feet. Chimú potters fired their vessels in an atmosphere of reduced oxygen to achieve a uniform black surface.

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