Vessel: Turtle
Unknown Artist
1000–1300
Medium
ceramic, slip
Dimensions
22.9 × 29.2 cm
Classification
Ceramic
Department
Art of the Americas
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
1998.30
About this artwork
Many Panamanian ceramics are among the most handsome and deftly designed in the Americas. Note how cleverly the artist used the vessel shape to imitate a turtle's carapace, its head peering out from its shell, its feet painted on the back (no. 10). And the stingray floats atop its pedestal, as though gliding through water (no. 9). Lamentably, little is known about the meaning of these witty ceramics.