Stirrup-spout bottle with warclub and crab warrior

This vessel shape is a variant on a common type known as a stirrup-spout bottle—the shape of the spout recalls the stirrup on a horse's saddle—and it was a much-favored form on Peru's northern coast for about 2,500 years. Although the importance and symbolism of this distinctive shape remains puzzling to scholars, it has been suggested that the double-branch/single-spout configuration may have prevented evaporation of liquids, and/or that it was convenient for carrying. Early in the first millennium CE, the Moche elaborated stirrup-spout bottles into sculptural shapes depicting a wide range of subjects, including human figures, animals, and plants worked with a great deal of naturalism. About 500 years later, bottle chambers became predominantly globular, as above, providing large surfaces for painting complex multi-figure scenes.

On this particular vessel, the spout was moved to the side and the long-necked bottle shape sculpted into a novel depiction of a mace head with a painted scene below. Scholars refer to this painting style as “fineline” for the detailed figures and scenes delicately slip-painted in red on a white background (slip is a suspension of clay and/or other colorants in water).

The Moche (also known as the Mochicas) flourished on Peru’s North Coast from 200-850 CE, centuries before the rise of the Inca. Over the course of some seven centuries the Moche built thriving regional centers from the Nepeña River Valley in the south to perhaps as far north as the Piura River, near the modern border with Ecuador, developing coastal deserts into rich farmlands and drawing upon the abundant maritime resources of the Pacific Ocean’s Humboldt Current. Although it is not known if the Moche ever formed a single centralized political entity such as a state, it is clear they shared certain unifying cultural traits such as religious practices (Donnan, 2010).

References and Further Reading

Castillo, Luis Jaime. “Masters of the Universe: Moche Artists and Their Patrons.” In Golden Kingdoms: Luxury Arts in the Ancient Americas, edited by Joanne Pillsbury, Timothy Potts, and Kim N. Richter, pp. 24–31. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2017.

Donnan, Christopher B. Moche Art of Peru: Pre-Columbian Symbolic Communication. Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History, 1978.

Donnan, Christopher B. “Moche State Religion.” In New Perspectives on Moche Political Organization, edited by Jeffrey Quilter and Luis Jaime Castillo. Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2010.

Donnan, Christopher B. and Donna McClelland. Moche Fineline Painting: Its Evolution and Its Artists. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, 1999.

Sawyer, Alan Reed. Ancient Peruvian Ceramics: The Nathan Cummings Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1966.