Vessel: Turtle (1000–1300): Art, History and Details

Vessel: Turtle (1000–1300) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Many Panamanian ceramics are among the most handsome and deftly designed in the Americas. Note how cleverly the artist used the vessel shape to imitate a turtle's carapace, its head peering out from its shell, its feet painted on the back (no. 10). And the stingray floats atop its pedestal, as though gliding through water (no. 9). Lamentably, little is known about the meaning of these witty ceramics.

Object facts

• Title: Vessel: Turtle
• Date: 1000–1300
• Culture: Panama, Parita style, 11th-14th century
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: ceramic, slip
• Dimensions: Overall: 22.9 x 29.2 cm (9 x 11 1/2 in.)
• Collection: AA - Intermediate Region
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1998.30

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Painting by 18th-century Italian Master Gaetano Gandolfi among Works Added to CMA Collection,” March 24, 1998, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.

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.