The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of September 10, 2026

A tan ceramic vessel features a wide, shallow bowl atop a flared pedestal base. On the exterior, mottled patches of charcoal and dark gray mark the surface. Inside, geometric patterns in red-orange, black, and cream slip decorate the walls, including spider-like forms with thin, angled legs reaching toward the center. The slightly irregular, rounded rim displays a warm earthy tone.

Bowl with Spider Decoration

c. 750–1250

Colombia, Highland Nariño region, Piartal style, 8th-13th Century

ceramic, slip
Diameter: 8.2 x 20.8 cm (3 1/4 x 8 3/16 in.); Overall: 8.1 cm (3 3/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1995.41
Location: 233 Mesoamerican and Intermediate Region

Description

In the Nariño region of southwestern Colombia, the dead were buried in shaft tombs, the most elaborate up to sixty feet deep and furnished with offerings such as these bowls. Colombian ceramics are not much studied and little can be said about their imagery, which reveals a keen interest in geometric abstraction. Depicted here are a row of figures with thatch-roofed huts, humans attacked by birds, and spiders.
  • {{cite web|title=Bowl with Spider Decoration|url=false|author=|year=c. 750–1250|access-date=10 September 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1995.41