Moche portrait vessels are ceramic vessels featuring highly individualized and naturalistic representations of human faces that are unique to the

Moche culture The Moche civilization (; alternatively, the Mochica culture or the Early, Pre- or Proto-Chimú) flourished in northern Peru with its capital near present-day Moche, Trujillo, Peru from about 100 to 700 AD during the Regional Development Epoch ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

. These portrait vessels are among the few realistic portrayals of humans found in the

Precolumbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, t ...

Americas.Duncan, Christopher B
"''Moche Portraits from Ancient Peru.'' Table of Contents and Excerpt."
''University of Texas Press.'' 2003-2011 (retrieved 17 July 2011)

Moche

The

thrived from 100—800 CE on the north coast of Peru. Their lands sat between the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

and the

Andean The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S l ...

cordillera A cordillera is an extensive chain and/or network system of mountain ranges, such as those in the west coast of the Americas. The term is borrowed from Spanish, where the word comes from , a diminutive of ('rope'). The term is most commonly us ...

. They were a stratified, agrarian society that also heavily relied on fishing.

Characteristics of the portrait vessels

While most Moche portrait vessels feature heads, some portray full human figures. They are meant to hold liquids. Almost all of the portraits of are adult men. In some rare instances, young boys are represented, but no portrait vessels of adult women have yet been found. The portraits are not idealized, some feature abnormalities, such as

harelip A cleft lip contains an opening in the upper lip that may extend into the nose. The opening may be on one side, both sides, or in the middle. A cleft palate occurs when the palate (the roof of the mouth) contains an opening into the nose. The te ...

s and missing eyes. The vessels range from 6–45 cm in height, with most being between 15–30 cm. Typically, Moche pottery features red slip painted on a pale cream background; however, white-on-red and black paint is also found.Bernier, Hélène
"Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History: Moche Decorated Ceramics."
''Metropolitan Museum of Art.'' (retrieved 17 July 2011) While most portraits are three-dimensional portrayals of human, some have additional fineline paintings on their surface.

Collections

Over 900 separate portrait vessels have been photographed by the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the Californ ...

. An estimated 95% of these portrait vessels were collected by looters instead of archaeologists, so the initial

provenance Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses i ...

of the vessels are unknown. Mostly they have been retrieved from graves but were used during people's lives, as evidenced by wear marks and repairs.

''Huaco Retrato Mochica''

One particularly famous Moche portrait vessel is known as the ''Huaco Retrato Mochica''. The portrait was made during the Late Moche period (ca. 600 CE), according to the chronology made by Rafael Larco Hoyle in 1948. The ceramic portrait is also an example of a

stirrup spout vessel A stirrup spout vessel (so called because of its resemblance to a stirrup) is a type of ceramic vessel common among several Pre-Columbian cultures of South America beginning in the early 2nd millennium BCE. These cultures included the Chavin an ...

of a Moche ruler. The ruler is depicted wearing a material

turban A turban (from Persian دولبند‌, ''dulband''; via Middle French ''turbant'') is a type of headwear based on cloth winding. Featuring many variations, it is worn as customary headwear by people of various cultures. Communities with promin ...

on which there is a headdress decorated by a two-headed bird with feathers on side. The effigy also wears tubular earrings that can be found in the "Gold and Silver Gallery" of the Larco Museum. The exact archaeological context in which it was found in is unknown. Nonetheless, information gained from various archaeological discoveries in the North Coast over the past 20 years suggests that it belonged to the tomb of a member of the Moche elite.

Archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...

s found this type of headdress, made of reed, in the tomb of the warrior priest god in the Huaca de la Cruz, an archaeological site situated in the

Virú Valley The Viru Valley is located in La Libertad Region on the north west coast of Peru. The Viru Valley Project In 1946 the first attempt to study settlement patterns in the Americas took place in the Viru Valley, led by Gordon Willey. Rather than exa ...

, south of Trujillo, explored by Strong and Evans in 1940. It may also have been excavated from within the Moche Valley in the southern Moche region. Rafael Larco Hoyle received this piece from his father, Rafael Larco Herrera. It is said that this was the only ceramic piece Herrera kept when he bequeathed his private collection to the

Museo del Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from th ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

and that Herrera gave it to his son who later opened his private collection to the public at the Larco Museum.

Notes

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External links