Bottle with caiman
1000–800 BCE
Medium
Ceramic, post-fire paint (cinnabar)
Dimensions
H. 12 3/4 × W. 8 1/16 × D. 5 3/8 in. (32.4 × 20.5 × 13.7 cm)
Classification
Ceramics-Containers
Culture
Cupisnique
Department
Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Purchase, Nelson A. Rockefeller Gift, 1967
Accession Number
1978.412.203
Art Historical Context
Step into the ancient world of Peru's North Coast with this striking *Bottle with Caiman*, crafted by Cupisnique artists around 1000–800 BCE. Belonging to the Cupisnique culture—one of the earliest known ceramic traditions in the Andes—this vessel exemplifies the Pre-Columbian fascination with powerful animals. The caiman, a fierce reptile symbolizing water, fertility, and the underworld, is vividly modeled on the bottle's surface, blending naturalistic form with supernatural stylization typical of early Andean art. Fashioned from ceramic and adorned with post-fire paint made from cinnabar—a ...