Moche Figural Vessel

Carlos Poveda, Paris

European Private Collection, acquired from the above in 2003

Gillett Griffin, et al., eds., Ancient American Art, 3500 BC-AD 1532: Masterworks of the Pre-Columbian Era, Milan, 2011, p. 341

The high degree of naturalism in Moche art is best presented in the portrait genre of ceramics. As Christopher Donnan notes, “[perhaps] more than any other group that lacked a writing system, the Moche people left a graphic record of themselves in their art”.¹

This compelling figure is a portrait of an aged lord with distinguishing double cheek projecting tattoos. His furrowed and lined face convey a wisdom of long life; his prominent ear tubes, full turban and patterned sleeves mark his rank and status.  The shift on the globular body to a two-dimensional portrayal of the large splayed hands, is one style of figural ceramics within the strict canons adhered to in Moche art. 

For a similar figure, see Donnan, op. cit., cover and p. 30, Fig. 53.

¹ Donnan, Moche Art of Peru, Pre-Columbian Symbolic Communication, Los Angeles, 1978, p. 3