Vessel with Deity Mask (1200–900 BCE): Art, History and Details

Vessel with Deity Mask (1200–900 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This unusual vessel is made of a U-shaped container and a sheet of clay modeled as a deity mask that is startling in its power: pierced eyes glare from the shadow of a muscular brow; the chin juts aggressively; and the part-bird, part-jaguar mouth opens in a shriek. This may be the face of the Olmec rain deity, the inspiration for much Olmec ritual and many accomplished works of art. The vessel may come from a grave or a buried offering.

Object facts

• Title: Vessel with Deity Mask
• Date: 1200–900 BCE
• Culture: Central Mexico (Las Bocas, Puebla?), Olmec, Formative Period
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: ceramic, traces of pigment
• Dimensions: Overall: 18 x 17.1 x 15.9 cm (7 1/16 x 6 3/4 x 6 1/4 in.)
• Collection: AA - Mesoamerica
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 2002.67

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Bergh, Susan E., "Vessel of the Bird Jaguar", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 43 no. 04, April 2003
• "Major Acquisitions 2000-2005." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 45, no. 6 (July/August 2005): 6-19.

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.