Lot 4
Pre-Columbian, South Coast Peru, Nazca culture, ca. 200 to 600 CE. A pair of finely painted polychrome pottery keros (drinking beakers), each embodying the Nazca mastery of bold line, color, and symbolic content. The more petite vessel presents five registers of zigzag motifs forming schematic, triangular heads rendered in alternating hues of cream, red, and brown, the design framed below by a band of thick and thin vertical lines. The larger beaker features a central frieze of abstract, winged flying figures flanked above and below by registers of linear and geometric patterns. At the rim, a procession of trophy heads - complete with cord-like elements - encircles the vessel, an iconography closely associated with fertility, warfare, and ritual power in Nazca belief. Nazca ceramic painting is celebrated for its extraordinary palette and narrative dynamism. These keros exemplify that artistry, the surfaces alive with crisp lines and rhythmic repetition. Size of larger: 4.3" L x 4.5" W x 6.9" H (10.9 cm x 11.4 cm x 17.5 cm)
Trophy head imagery was central to Nazca cosmology, thought to embody the transfer of vital force, while zigzag and triangular head motifs may echo mountains, serpents, or divine beings. Such beakers were likely employed in ritual drinking ceremonies, linking feasting, ancestor veneration, and the cycles of fertility. A rare paired grouping, these vessels encapsulate both the geometric abstraction and figural imagination of Nazca ceramic tradition, their bold designs still radiating visual power across fifteen centuries.
The larger vessel in this lot has been tested using thermoluminescence (TL) analysis and has been found to be ancient and of the period stated. A full printed and bound report will accompany the item upon purchase.
Provenance: private Colorado collection, USA; ex-Art for Eternity, New York, New York, USA; (zigzag vessel): ex-private German collection, acquired in the 1980s;
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#196497
- Condition: One chip to rim of larger has been reattached with break line visible. Both have been professionally repaired with restoration and repainting over some break lines and others visible. Two perforations from old repair on rim of more petite vessel. Light surface wear throughout as shown. Otherwise, both have excellent presentations with good remaining pigments. Larger has TL holes to rim and underside of base.
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