Portrait Head Vessel (200–550 CE): Art, History and Details

Portrait Head Vessel (200–550 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The Moche were unique in ancient Peru in creating realistic human portraits, usually in the form of ceramic vessels. This large example may represent an important captive who, like some Moche prisoner figures, wears double earrings and a hank of hair over the forehead.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait Head Vessel
• Date: 200–550 CE
• Culture: Peru, North Coast, Moche style
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: earthenware with colored slips
• Dimensions: Overall: 30.5 x 28.9 x 25 cm (12 x 11 3/8 x 9 13/16 in.)
• Collection: AA - Andes
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1930.627

Collection credit

Gift of Guerdon S. Holden

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Ancient Peruvian Pottery." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 18, no. 2 pt. 1 (February 1931): 30, 35-38.

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.