Container (1200–200 BCE): Art, History and Details

Container (1200–200 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

While Chavín held sway in the highlands, coastal artists produced many objects in non-Chavín styles. Such is the case with these small, finely-carved, stone containers, which were part of north coast ritual paraphernalia, though their specific use in unclear. Both bear complex designs based on fanged heads in profile that lack lower jaws.

Object facts

• Title: Container
• Date: 1200–200 BCE
• Culture: Peru, North Coast, Cupisnique style
• Type: Stone
• Technique: steatite
• Dimensions: Overall: 6.6 x 9.3 cm (2 5/8 x 3 11/16 in.)
• Collection: AA - Andes
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1955.167

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Milliken, William. "Two Chavin Vessels." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 42, no. 9 (November 1955): 203-205.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.

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.