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Artwork Page for Sea Lion Pup Vessel

Details / Information for Sea Lion Pup Vessel

Sea Lion Pup Vessel

200–850 CE
ceramic and slip
Overall: 19.7 x 15.5 x 16 cm (7 3/4 x 6 1/8 x 6 5/16 in.)
Weight: 520 g (1.15 lbs.)
Gift of John and Agneta Solomon 2014.375
Location: 232 Andean
Public Domain
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Did You Know?

Moche potters were skilled at producing charming images using only red and white slip.

Description

Sea lions commonly appear in Moche art as effigy vessels, like this appealing pup, or in complex scenes that often show them as the targets of human hunters. They may have been prized in part for the beach pebbles found in their stomachs; modern Peruvian folk healers consider such pebbles to have powerful medicinal qualities. Also, colonial-period natives believed that sea lions carried the dead to off-shore islands, an idea that could date to Moche times.
Red-brown ceramic vessel of a sealion pup, sitting back on its rear fins and bracing itself with two, longer front fins turned out from the body. A round face fuses with the body, with an open mouth and beige detailed whiskers, stripe from nose through forehead, eyebrows, and eye outline. Small, bean-shaped ears extend back from the eye. A circular handle, the center from which protrudes as spout, sticks out from the pups back.

Sea Lion Pup Vessel

200–850 CE

Central Andes, North Coast, Moche people

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