Peru, South Coast, Paracas (Cavernas) style (700 BCE–1 CE) / 700 BCE–1 CE
Vessel with Feline
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Vessel with Feline as ceramic (Peru, South Coast, Paracas (Cavernas) style (700 BCE–1 CE) · 700 BCE–1 CE).
Small, wild, reclusive felines, pampas cats live on the margins of agricultural fields, where they prey on rodents and other pests that are a farmer’s bane
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this ceramic as earthenware, resin-based paint.
The museum's collection notes: Little is known of the meaning of the beautifully abstracted felines so often incised on Paracas ceramics. The designs achieve much of their complexity through color applied as resin-based paint after the vessel was fired in a smoky atmosphere that blackened its surface. Two spouts joined by a bridge appear on many fine South Coast ceramics. The form probably had meaning, now lost.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtVessel with FelineOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.