Bound Deer Effigy Vessel
Unknown Artist
1000–1460s
Medium
Ceramic
Dimensions
18.7 × 24 × 13 cm
Classification
Ceramic
Department
Art of the Americas
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
Accession Number
2017.59
About this artwork
This vessel was made by an artist of the Chimú Empire of Peru’s north coast. In the art of the Moche, an earlier culture in the region, the deer had complex symbolism related to ritual combat and the capture of prisoners. A memory of that symbolism may survive here in the binding of the deer’s feet.