Animal Effigy Vessel (1000–1550): Art, History and Details

Animal Effigy Vessel (1000–1550) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The Pataky style excells in animal portrayals that combine a modeled head with a flat vessel chamber that doubles as the animal’s body. It may be important that many of these animals strike human poses; creatures that combine the human and animal often have mythic import.

Object facts

• Title: Animal Effigy Vessel
• Date: 1000–1550
• Culture: Costa Rica, Southern Nicoya region, Pataky Polychrome style
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: earthenware with colored slips
• Dimensions: Overall: 29.5 x 22.1 x 29.8 cm (11 5/8 x 8 11/16 x 11 3/4 in.)
• Collection: AA - Intermediate Region
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1997.3

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Major Neoclassical Marble, Rare Korean Sculpture, Other Recent CMA Acquisitions Now on View,” April 16, 1997, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.