PRECOLUMBIAN ART : INCLUDING A SELECTION OF ... - Lempertz

*47
MIDDLE MOCHICA PAINTED
VESSEL
Ca. A. D. 200-500
Painted in reddish brown and cream with
two richly attired warriors with bound,
naked captives, each running captor
clenching a circular shield and rope to
his prisoner and a long club in the right
hand, wearing a patterned tunic with large
backfl ap with decorative streamers and
crested helmet.
Height 27.2 cm
Provenance
Bernoulli Collection, Basel, 1949
Literature
Alan Lapiner, Pre-Columbian Art of South
America, 1974, pl. 313-316
It is not known if these fi neline battle
scenes depicted at times, in vivid detail,
show actual historical battles, reenactments
of ancient history, ceremonial
warfare to take captives, or perhaps a combination
of these. The oft-reapeted motif
of a naked prisoner in Moche ceramics
indicates that the taking of captives, to be
later sacrifi cied was a principal object of
combat whether real or a mythical.
€ 2 000 – 4 000