Deer-Headed Figure Vessel

The collection record classifies this work as vessels. It is dated 200–850 CE. Recorded culture or place: Central Andes, North Coast, Moche people.

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OBJECT RECORD

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Museum title: Deer-Headed Figure Vessel
Date: 200–850 CE
Culture / origin: Central Andes, North Coast, Moche people
Materials and technique: ceramic, slip
Dimensions: Overall: 26.5 x 14 x 25.5 cm (10 7/16 x 5 1/2 x 10 1/16 in.)
Artist / maker: Not specified by the museum
Museum: The Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession number: 2008.1

FROM THE MUSEUM

In the museum’s words

The following description is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s original English record.

Moche imagery includes an intriguing world of creatures that mingle traits from different realms: beans sprout human legs and race up a spout, jars leap with human feet to pour themselves, and animals wield weapons in two hands. This figure, with a stag’s head but a human’s body, is an example. He is engaged in a coca-leaf chewing ritual and thus holds a bag for the leaves along with a container of powdered lime that is one of the ritual’s key ingredients.

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