The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 1, 2023

Kero (Waisted Cup)

400–1000

Bolivia, Cochabamba(?), Tiwanaku style, 400-1000

Earthenware with colored slips

Overall: 22.3 x 17 cm (8 3/4 x 6 11/16 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1963.476

Location

232 Andean

Description

The kero is a distinctive Tiwanaku vessel form, imitated by the later Inka, who used the cups in political and religious ceremonies. It is assumed that the same was true at Tiwanaku, where impressive stone figures, perhaps rulers, hold keros as though they are emblems of authority. Perhaps, like the Inka, the Tiwanaku used keros to drink chicha, a corn beer shared to cement bonds of mutual obligation among allies.

Exhibition history

Palm Beach, FL: The Society of the Four Arts; January 10 - February 1,1953. "Pre-Columbian Art: The Native Art of America Before the Conquest." Cat. no. 85, no repr.

Brussel, Belgium: Museess Royaux d'Art ed d'Histoire; September 21- December 31, 1990. "Peru: Les Incas."

Denver, CO: The Denver Art Museum; October 16, 2004- January 23, 2005. "Tiwanaku: Ancestors of the Inca", exh. cat. no. 6.20, p.169.

Year in Review (1963). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 27, 1963-January 5, 1964).

Sacred India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1985-January 12, 1986).

Peru: Les Incas. Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium (organizer) (September 21, 1990-January 20, 1991).

Tiwanaku: Ancestors of the Inca. Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO (organizer) (October 16, 2004-January 23, 2005).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1963.476