The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 5, 2023

Plate with Supernatural Being

900–600 BC

Central Andes, north coast, probably Jequetepeque Valley, Cupisnique people

Stone (probably steatite [soapstone])

Overall: 4 x 16.4 cm (1 9/16 x 6 7/16 in.)

J.H. Wade Trust Fund 2021.131

Location

232 Andean

Fun Fact

The supernatural figure on this small plate may be an apotheosis of the life-death cycle.

Description

This plate is carved with a feline supernatural sacrificer who holds a severed human head in its clawed paws. The diagonal clusters of plant foliage at the figure’s shoulders and hips imply that death is tied to the earth’s fertility, one being a precondition for the other. The figure, therefore, may be an apotheosis of the life-death cycle.

Provenance
Before the late 1960s-1997
Margrith Brenner, Zurich, Switzerland, sold to Private Collector
1997-2021
Private Collector, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
2021-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2021.131