Jar with flying figure (Oculate Being)

Art Historical Context

This striking ceramic jar, crafted by Paracas artists between 350 BCE and 60 CE, captures a mysterious "Oculate Being"—a flying figure with prominent, staring eyes that evoke the supernatural world of ancient Peru's Paracas culture. Standing just 7¼ inches tall, the vessel's rounded form and double-spouted design make it both a functional container and a canvas for storytelling, now housed in the Metropolitan Museum Art's Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. The Paracas, who thrived along Peru's southern coast, were masterful potters renowned for their vivid imagery of animated beings, shamans, and mythical creatures. This jar's central motif likely represents a spiritual entity or airborne deity, reflecting beliefs in otherworldly journeys, fertility rites, or shamanic visions central to Paracas cosmology. Such ceramics offer rare glimpses into a pre-Inca society celebrated for its intricate textiles and burials, where grave goods like this one accompanied the dead into the afterlife. Artistically, the use of post-fire paint is key: pigments applied after firing lent bold reds, blacks, and creams that have endured millennia, though more fragile than slip techniques. Donated in 1974 by Nathan Cummings, this piece invites us to ponder the Paracas' blend of everyday utility and cosmic imagination.