Beaker with Frogs (900–1100): Art, History and Details

Beaker with Frogs (900–1100) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This beaker was created by an artist of the Lambayeque culture of Peru's north coast. High-relief frogs grace the surface, which has a dramatically flaring rim as well as a silvery color, the result of silver in the alloy. If such beakers were used in life—that is, not created exclusively for the lavish tombs in which they have been found in quantities—they may have figured in feasting events that were central to late pre-Hispanic political, social, and religious life.

Object facts

• Title: Beaker with Frogs
• Date: 900–1100
• Culture: Central Andes (Peru), Lambayeque (Sicán) people, 10th century-12th century
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: gold, hammered
• Dimensions: Overall: 13.7 x 12.1 cm (5 3/8 x 4 3/4 in.)
• Collection: AA - Andes
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 2015.9

A detail from the museum

This beaker was probably formed using a single sheet of metal over a wooden form.

Collection credit

Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016.
• Bergh, Susan E. “Acquisitions 2015: Pre-Columbian and Native North American Art.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 56, no. 2 (March/April 2016): 32-33.

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.