Moche
Portrait head bottle
Moche, 300
Physical Qualities
Earthenware, polychrome, 9 1/16 × 5 1/8 in. (23 × 13 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. J. Lee Tailer
Object Number
1934.63.1
Portrait of leader in the form of a stirrup-spout bottle. This example shows a middle aged individual who wears a Type B head cloth painted in red on cream with a diamond-shaped design on the crown of the head. The ear is hidden beneath the head cloth but a tubular ear ornament is shown, bearing a trapezoidal shaped bangle. Organic black pigment covers the eyes in a horizontal band, and at the edges of the mouth. The same pigment is used to create a zig-zag shaped necklace below the chin. The eyes have been painted with a cream slip paint. A hole at the nostril indicates the nose would have been ornamented (pierced). Laugh lines have been etched into the lower cheeks.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1934; Mrs. J. Lee Tailer ??
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Myths of Ancient Peru," October 7, 1969 to November 30, 1969, Circulated to Tennessee Fine Arts Center, Nashville, Tennessee; Loch Haven Art Center, Orlando, Forida; Jacksonville Art Museum, Jacksonville, Florida; Isaac Delgado Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana; Birmingham Art Museum, Birmingham, Alabama; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia; and Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina.
"Myths of Ancient Peru," Baltimore: The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1969, cat. no. 23.
H. Doering, "The Art of Old Peru." London: Ernest Benn Ltd., 1924. Page 55.
Markings: spout broken