The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 3, 2024

Vessel: Turtle

Vessel: Turtle

1000–1300

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.
  • Sale: Sotheby's, New York, November 24, 1997, Sale 7057, lot 57
    (Sale: Sotheby's, New York, November 24, 1997, Sale 7057, lot 57)
  • Cleveland Museum of Art, “Painting by 18th-century Italian Master Gaetano Gandolfi among Works Added to CMA Collection,” March 24, 1998, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
  • {{cite web|title=Vessel: Turtle|url=false|author=|year=1000–1300|access-date=03 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1998.30