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

38
*48
LARGE MOCHICA BOWL
Ca. A. D. 200-500
The fl aring conical vessel or fl orero with pedestal foot fi lled with rattles,
painted in cream and reddish brown, with an animated fi shing
scene composed of two tule boats surrounded by anthropomorphic
creatures, each with the prow and stern with a fi nial in the form of
a ferocious monster’s head with teeth bared, each vessel carrying
two energetic fi shermen, in one a kneeling fi gure paddles, which
his companion grasping a thick rope with bait as he pulls up an anthropomorphic
large bonito, the latter grasping a tumi, the second
group of fi shermen with one alert fi gure standing at the stern with
a rope and club, the whole populated with stingrays, fl ying birds,
various fi sh and two long beaked striding birds.
Diameter 36 cm
Provenance
Bernoulli Collection, Basel, 1949
Exhibited
Zurich, Alt-Peru aus Schweizer Sammlungen, Kunsthaus Zurich, April
18-June 2, 1957, pl. 9, no. 202
Literature
Hans-Dietrich Disselhoff , Leben im alten Peru, Munich, 1966, pl. 52
Ferdinand Anton, Alt -Peru und seine Kunst, Leipzig, 1962, pl. 18
Ferdinand Anton, Alt -Peru und seine Kunst, Leipzig, 1972, pl. 143
Cf. Moche Fineline Painting, fi g. 3.45
Such tule boats are still used by fi shermen on the north coast of
Peru. The paddles are a split piece of cane. Early Colonial records cite
larger reed boats in use in lagoons and rivers as depicted on the
fl orero.
€ 4 000 – 6 000