Nariño Coquero, Capuli Style

Gerardo Roca, New York

Fine Arts of Ancient Lands, New York, acquired from the above in 1983

European Private Collection, acquired from the above in 1984

Brussels, Royal Museums of Art and History, Trésors du Nouveau Monde, September 15 - December 27, 1992

Emile and Lin Deletaille, eds., Trésors du Nouveau Monde, Brussels, 1992, p. 337, fig. 333

Gillett Griffin, et al., eds., Ancient American Art, 3500 BC-AD 1532: Masterworks of the Pre-Columbian Era, Milan, 2011, p. 239

The tall male figure seated on a bench, a wad of coca leaves bulging from one cheek, a woven band stretching across the torso indicated in black resist against the lustrous brown-red ground with further black designs embellishing the face.

Coca-chewing figures, coqueros, are generally interpreted as shamans. Early Spanish accounts indicate that coca was widely used in the Highlands of South America. In late pre-conquest Inca times, coca use is said to have been reserved for the male nobility, religious ceremonies, and divination.

For a prototypical example, see Warwick Bray, Gold of El Dorado, London, 1978, figs. 150 and 151.