The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of August 14, 2026

A green-beige ceramic vessel is shaped like a figure with the head of a deer seated with their legs crossed and holding a cylindrical instrument in their right hand, palm up. Held horizontally, this cylinder narrows and makes contact with the flared top of another cylinder, held vertically in the figure's left hand. Part of a curved handle with a spout protruding from the top can be seen attached to the figure's back.

Deer-Headed Figure Vessel

200–850 CE

Central Andes, North Coast, Moche people

ceramic, slip
Overall: 26.5 x 14 x 25.5 cm (10 7/16 x 5 1/2 x 10 1/16 in.)
Jo Hershey Selden Fund 2008.1
Location: 232 Andean

Description

Moche imagery includes an intriguing world of creatures that mingle traits from different realms: beans sprout human legs and race up a spout, jars leap with human feet to pour themselves, and animals wield weapons in two hands. This figure, with a stag’s head but a human’s body, is an example. He is engaged in a coca-leaf chewing ritual and thus holds a bag for the leaves along with a container of powdered lime that is one of the ritual’s key ingredients.
  • {{cite web|title=Deer-Headed Figure Vessel|url=false|author=|year=200–850 CE|access-date=14 August 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2008.1