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Drum

100–400 CE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 362
Ceramic drums with central, bulging sounding chambers were made in southern Peru at the turn of the first millennium. Among the most elaborately finished are those of Nasca style. They were surfaced with the many rich colors commonly used on Nasca ceramic vessels. A favored form was one in which a fat-bodied figure was worked into the shape of the instrument, the rotund body spreading out equally on all sides and the legs drawn up in the front. The figure is depicted atop the wide mouth of the drum, over which a skin would have been stretched. The image is symbolically complex; a snake emerges from under the figure's chin and a killer whale outlines each eye. The killer whales are in profile and show the "two-tone" color differentiation normally given them in Nasca depictions. A headband is wound around the head and tied to form a hornlike projection on the forehead. In back, the figure's hair is shown as serpents with long tongues.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Drum
  • Artist: Nasca artist(s)
  • Date: 100–400 CE
  • Geography: Peru, South Coast
  • Culture: Nasca
  • Medium: Ceramic, slip
  • Dimensions: H.17 3/4 x Diam. 10 in. (45.1 x 25.4 cm)
  • Classification: Ceramics-Musical Instruments
  • Credit Line: The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Wielgus, 1964
  • Object Number: 1978.412.111
  • Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing

More Artwork

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Spout-and-bridge bottles with stepped design, Nasca artist(s), Ceramic, slip, Nasca
Spout-and-bridge bottles with stepped design
Nasca artist(s)
1–400 CE
Head jar, Nasca artist(s), Ceramic, slip, Nasca
Head jar
Nasca artist(s)
100–500 CE
Head jar, Nasca artist(s), Ceramic, slip, Nasca
Head jar
Nasca artist(s)
100–500 CE
Textile ornament, Nasca artist(s), Gold, Nasca
Textile ornament
Nasca artist(s)
1–700 CE
Bird-shaped ornament, Nasca artist(s), Gold, Nasca
Bird-shaped ornament
Nasca artist(s)
1–700 CE

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