Feline Vessel
Unknown Artist
1–700 CE
Medium
ceramic, red and white slips, black pigment
Dimensions
20.3 × 10.1 × 15.2 cm
Classification
Ceramic
Department
Art of the Americas
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
The Charlotte Ekker and Charlotte Van der Veer Memorial Fund
Accession Number
2009.9
About this artwork
Recuay art is under-studied and it is difficult to know the meaning of the wonderfully stylized feline on whose head perches a small passenger that may be a coatimundi, a nosy, busy, racoon-like animal. Elsewhere in Recuay art, felines are shown as virile predators, making it likely that in general they were symbols of leadership. The feline is painted with white and red slips; after firing, a resist application of black pigment was used to create the dotted pattern.