Moche Fine Line Stirrup-Spout Vessel

Carlos Poveda, Paris

European Private Collection, acquired from the above in the 1980s

Gillett Griffin, et al., eds., Ancient American Art, 3500 BC-AD 1532: Masterworks of the Pre-Columbian Era, Milan, 2011, p. 350

Moche fine line painting is “one of the most remarkable painting traditions of the ancient world”, developed in the north coastal region of Peru over the span of seven centuries. Likened to Greek vase painting, artists mastered painting complex scenes on the irregular surfaces of ceramic vessels.¹ 

This expertly painted Phase V vessel is a dense, highly animated confrontation between the warrior known as Wrinkle Face and mythical supernatural figures. Wrinkle Face, recognized by his striped face and often with a serpent-headed belt, becomes a well-known player in the corpus of Phase V supernatural activities. Confronting the protagonist is the large Strombus Monster, a hybrid marine and feline creature, shown with a flaring shell back, striped limbs and fierce, toothy snout. He rises against Wrinkle Face on the left, who wields a large tumi knife in his raised right hand. On the other side, Wrinkle Face holds the tumi knife and confronts a striding warrior with a feline helmet. The ‘locator’ emblems indicating the landscape of the scene are roughened scrub mountainous cones beneath the warriors, along with dust cloud symbols emphasizing the intense action. 

For examples of Wrinkle Face, see Donnan, op.cit., p. 118, fig. 4.79; for the Strombus Monster see p. 117, fig.4.77 and p. 175, fig. 5.62; for the locator emblem see p. 177, fig. 5.66; and for the style of the spout, see p. 168, fig. 5.48b.

¹ Christopher B. Donnan and Donna McClelland, Moche Fine Line Painting, Its Evolution and Its Artists, Los Angeles, 1999, p. 13 and 295