Deity-Head Vessel
Unknown Artist
900–400 BCE
Medium
ceramic with pigment applied after firing
Dimensions
27.6 × 14.9 × 19.2 cm
Classification
Sculpture
Department
Art of the Americas
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
Accession Number
2009.82
About this artwork
This is a stirrup-spouted vessel shaped as the effigy of a deity head with bulging, circular eyes from which hang pendants. A fanged, bandlike mouth is arranged horizontally on top of a projecting chin that is tipped with a three-dimensional, zoomorphic head. A chin strap reaches between two modeled knobs that double as ear ornaments, and the underpart of the chin is ornamented with chevrons. The face is painted red, yellow, and white over the burnished gray-black surface of the ceramic.