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Stirrup-spout bottle with seated figure

200 CE–500 CE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 362
The stirrup-spout vessel—so named for the similarity of the spout form to that of a riding saddle stirrup—was a much-favored bottle shape in Precolumbian Peru. It has been suggested that the peculiarity of the double-branch/single-spout shape was to prevent evaporation of the liquids it contained. The stirrup spout was used on ceramic vessels in northern Peru for about twenty-five hundred years. Early in the first millennium BCE, the stirrup-spout bottle was elaborated into sculptural depictions of a wide range of visual phenomena. The human figure appeared among them in many roles and guises, some seemingly "everyday" in aspect, while others were of a more noticeably ritual or sacred character.

The figure wears a headdress that has a small feline face at the center. Such animal-fronted headdresses were commonly depicted in Moche art. They are believed to have been emblematic of rank or profession. This figure may originally have had inlaid eyes and more ornaments on its nose, ears, and wrists.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Stirrup-spout bottle with seated figure
  • Artist: Moche artist(s)
  • Date: 200 CE–500 CE
  • Geography: Peru
  • Culture: Moche
  • Medium: Ceramic
  • Dimensions: H. 6 3/8 × W. 4 1/2 × D. 6 1/2 in. (16.2 × 11.4 × 16.5 cm)
  • Classification: Ceramics-Containers
  • Credit Line: Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1882
  • Object Number: 82.1.30
  • Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing

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Decapitator plaque, Moche artist(s), Silvered copper, shell, Moche
Decapitator plaque
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Vessel with face-neck, Moche artist(s), Ceramic, slip, Moche
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Ear flare frontal, Moche artist(s), Gold, Moche
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Ear flare frontal
Moche artist(s)
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