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

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

The work and its context

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

Metalworking flourished among the Lambayeque people of Peru’s north coast. Artists made large objects, including containers, in unprecedented numbers; one Lambayeque tomb contained nearly 200 gold or silver beakers. The head on this beaker has been interpreted as the visage of either the culture’s principal deity—its divinity signaled by its feline-like fangs—or the deified founder of the Lambayeque ruling dynasty. It is not known why the head is upright only when the beaker rests on its rim.

Object facts

• Title: Head Beaker
• Date: 900–1100
• Culture: Central Andes (Peru), Lambayeque (Sicán) people, 10th century-12th century
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: gold, hammered
• Dimensions: Overall: 23.5 x 19.8 cm (9 1/4 x 7 13/16 in.)
• Collection: AA - Andes
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 2015.6

A detail from the museum

This drinking vessel holds close to 62 oz of fluid—almost half a gallon!

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.
• Lemonedes, Heather. "Acquisition Highlights.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 58, no. 2 (March/April 2018): 6-7.

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.