Artwork Page for Vessel: Turtle

Details / Information for Vessel: Turtle

Vessel: Turtle

1000–1300

Panama, Parita style, 11th-14th century

Medium
ceramic, slip
Measurements
Overall: 22.9 x 29.2 cm (9 x 11 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
John L. Severance Fund 1998.30
Public Domain
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Location
233 Mesoamerican and Intermediate Region
Print

Description

Many Panamanian ceramics are among the most handsome and deftly designed in the Americas. Note how cleverly the artist used the vessel shape to imitate a turtle's carapace, its head peering out from its shell, its feet painted on the back (no. 10). And the stingray floats atop its pedestal, as though gliding through water (no. 9). Lamentably, little is known about the meaning of these witty ceramics.
A tapered ceramic vessel flares at the rim, sloping down a wide shoulder to a rounded body. Speckled matte red slip coats the bottom half. Above, black and red patterns adorn a cream background. Nested eye motifs fill a central trapezoidal panel, while black lines radiate from a red circle into stylized curls. Encircling the vessel's widest point, an interlocking geometric band separates the patterned shoulder from the solid red base.

Vessel: Turtle

1000–1300

Panama, Parita style, 11th-14th century

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