Bowl with Spider Decoration (c. 750–1250): Art, History and Details

Bowl with Spider Decoration (c. 750–1250) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

In the Nariño region of southwestern Colombia, the dead were buried in shaft tombs, the most elaborate up to sixty feet deep and furnished with offerings such as these bowls. Colombian ceramics are not much studied and little can be said about their imagery, which reveals a keen interest in geometric abstraction. Depicted here are a row of figures with thatch-roofed huts, humans attacked by birds, and spiders.

Object facts

• Title: Bowl with Spider Decoration
• Date: c. 750–1250
• Culture: Colombia, Highland Nariño region, Piartal style, 8th-13th Century
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: ceramic, slip
• Dimensions: Diameter: 8.2 x 20.8 cm (3 1/4 x 8 3/16 in.); Overall: 8.1 cm (3 3/16 in.)
• Collection: AA - Intermediate Region
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1995.41

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

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.