Vessel with Reclining Figure and Birds (2200–200 BCE): Art, History and Details

Vessel with Reclining Figure and Birds (2200–200 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This ceramic vessel features a supine human being pecked by two birds that perch on the vessel’s doughnut-shaped chamber. The identity of the apparently mythical creature modeled in low relief on the sides of the stirrup-shaped spout is unknown. Little can be said about meaning beyond pointing out an obvious reference to death.

Object facts

• Title: Vessel with Reclining Figure and Birds
• Date: 2200–200 BCE
• Culture: Andes, north coast, Cupisnique style
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Ceramic, pigment (cinnabar?)
• Dimensions: Overall: 14.3 x 14.9 cm (5 5/8 x 5 7/8 in.)
• Collection: AA - Andes
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 2017.55

A detail from the museum

The stirrup-shaped form of the spout is common among Peruvian ceramics and unique to the ancient Americas.

Collection credit

Gift of John and Agneta Solomon

Further reading listed by the museum

• Bergh, Susan E. “Acquisition Highlights: Pre-Columbian Art.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 58, no. 2 (March/April 2018): 8-9.

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.