Lot 21
Pre-Columbian, Central Andes, Chavin culture, ca. 800 to 500 BCE. A rare blackware stirrup-spout vessel in the form of a deer, its rounded body serving as the animal's torso with short legs modeled in relief along the sides. The head rises alertly at one end, featuring large eyes, flaring ears, and a slightly pointed muzzle with pierced nostrils that lend an expressive quality to the figure. The stirrup spout rises smoothly from the animal's back, its twin tubes joining at the top into a single vertical neck. The vessel is burnished to a deep brown-black surface, its sheen the result of careful polishing and reduction firing. Animal effigy stirrup vessels are a hallmark of early Andean ceramic tradition, and deer were potent subjects within Chavin art. Representing both sustenance and the untamed vitality of the natural world, the deer held symbolic weight in ritual contexts. Size: 8" L x 5.5" W x 8.8" H (20.3 cm x 14 cm x 22.4 cm)
Chavin artists frequently merged the sacred with the natural, translating the living world into vessels that were both utilitarian and imbued with spiritual presence. Such effigies may have been offerings, ceremonial drinking vessels, or status symbols, affirming the connection between humans, animals, and the divine.
This example embodies the Chavin mastery of sculptural ceramics: its form compact and harmonious, its surface gleaming with a dark polish, and its subject rendered with lifelike immediacy. It stands as a testament to the earliest highland Andean civilization's fusion of artistry, function, and cosmology.
Provenance: private Colorado, USA collection
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#196967
- Condition: Professionally repaired and restored with repainting over break lines; all done very well and mostly difficult to detect. Light surface wear with some abrasions in areas, commensurate with age. Otherwise, excellent presentation and nice detail.
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