Darkware Vessel (late 1400s): Art, History and Details

Darkware Vessel (late 1400s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Under the Chimú, whose empire stretched for 800 miles along the Peruvian north coast, the value of ceramics fell, perhaps because high-status vessels were made of precious metals. Accordingly, ceramics were mass-produced with molds and, rather than bearing painted scenes, often have an overall dark surface achieved by firing in a smoky atmosphere. This firing method was also used for very early Andean ceramics, including the example at the far left. We don't know whether the Chimú revived the method to venerate earlier cultures. The vessel with the stripped surface was made after the Chimú were conquered by the Inka in the late 1400s.

Object facts

• Title: Darkware Vessel
• Date: late 1400s
• Culture: Peru, North Coast, Chimú style (900-1470)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: black ware
• Dimensions: Overall: 22.6 x 13.7 x 13.9 cm (8 7/8 x 5 3/8 x 5 1/2 in.)
• Collection: AA - Andes
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1920.258

Collection credit

Gift of Dr. Arthur P. Ginn

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Accessions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 7, no. 10 (1920): 160-62.

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.