ALL

A Mochica Portrait Head
from Ancient Peru

Dallas Museum of Fine Arts,

Among the varied ceramic-producing traditions of
ancient Peru, that of the Mochica is motable for the
variety of subject matter expressed in effigy vessels,
of which the portrait heads are an important class, The
north coastal Mochica culture wag already several con-
turies old when the majority of these head effigies
were produced, Although their exact use is uncertain,
it is probable that they represented leaders and other
important persons whose effigies could by this means
be distributed to followers as marks of favor or per-
haps to show clan connection or political allegiance.
In some instances a number of similar vessels survive,
either made from the same mold, or made in different
sizes of the same individual. There are, for instance,
two Ldentical smaller vessels in the Rafael Lareo Her-
rera Museum in Lima, Peru, which represents this
game individeal,

Most examples of Mochica ceramics which survive
come from burials, which indicates the ritually related
nature of at least a certain number of these vessels.
There are indications, tn fact, that the stirrup-spout
shape may have been reserved primarily for ceremonial
use. While this shape occurs sporadically in other parts
of the world, it had its most numerous and longest use
in ametent Peru, where from at least as early as 1200
B.C, onward it was the prevalent ceramic form in the
north coastal valleys, where it continued in use until
the mid-l6th century A.D.

By the time this vessel was made, Mochica potters
Were Using mass production methods for most of their

Studio PotteR 4%

Stirrup-Spout Vessel: Portrait Head Perw: Mochica IV
W: TLq im. (18.5 em)

H: 11 15/16 in. (33.3 em);

The Nora and John Wise Collection, Loan (W 114)

vessels. Ceramic master molds were made, from which
replicas could be produced by pressing the evenly tex-
tured, sand-tem pered reddish brown clay into the front,
patterned half, When this had hardened enough for
removal, it was combined with a separately molded
and usually far simpler back half, and the whole was
finished off by hand, details being sharpened and some-
times varying ear or headdress ornaments being added
to the same basic mold. When the vessel was leather
hard, the separately produced stirrup-spout was added.
The vessel was then slipped, normally with reddish
brown and cream slips, occasionally with a third color
(brown or orange-red). A post-firing black pigment
was aléo used at times. Here again variety might be
introduced through the application of different patterns
of facial paint to various examples from the same mold.
The vessel was finally burnished, As far as is known,
firing of the thinewalled evenly potted vessels was
done by he simplest methods, very tnuch like those used
in the American Southwest today, to produce an evenly
fired, oxidized ware.

While there is no certain evidence in the form of
contemporary representations showing potters at work,
it is the feeling of many specialists in Peruvian studies
that the potters were probably male craft specialists,
just as it is even more certain that women were the
specialized producers of textiles. For several centuries
these specialists produced works in a style unusually
naturalistic for the New World and expressive of the
vigor and purpose of the culture whose leaders, activi-
ties, and beliefs these ceramic sculptures have pre-
served until the present,

Jouw LUNSPORD, Curator

A.D. 200-3000

a

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