Vessel with Running Figures (450–550): Art, History and Details

Vessel with Running Figures (450–550) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Moche painters were masters at capturing the peak of physical activity. On this vessel are runners whose legs seem to churn so fast they ripple the desert groundline. Such runners, common in Moche art, always carry small bags, the contents open to question. But beans sometimes float around the runners, as here, suggesting they are involved in a ritual for planting. Beans also may have been used in rituals to divine the unknown.

Object facts

• Title: Vessel with Running Figures
• Date: 450–550
• Culture: Peru, North Coast, Moche style
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: earthenware with colored slips
• Dimensions: Overall: 29 x 15.6 cm (11 7/16 x 6 1/8 in.)
• Collection: AA - Andes
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1947.172

Collection credit

Gift of John Wise

Further reading listed by the museum

• Donnan, Christopher B., and Donna McClelland. Moche Fineline Painting: Its Evolution and Its Artists. Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1999.

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.