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Double spout vessel with shaman figure

ca. 1 - 700

The double spout configuration popular in the southern Andes denotes the philosophy of duality and the vessels were made in pairs. Imagery painted on the earthenware surface—of birds, snakes, shamans, and trophy heads—symbolically connect the living with ancestors, gods and cosmic forces.

Ceramic

7 3/4 in. (19.69 cm)

Diam.: 8 in.

Thomas D. Stimson Memorial Collection

46.72

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Henry Gallery, University of Washington, Arte Prehispanico, 1970 (Eastern Washington State Historical Society).

Spokane, Washington, Cheney Cowles Memorial Museum, American Del Sur, 1971.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Peru's Golden Treasures, Mar. 20 - July 20, 1980.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Art of the Ancient Americas, July 10, 1999 - May 11, 2003.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Cosmic Beings in Mesoamerican and Andean Art, Nov. 10, 2018 - ongoing.

Published ReferencesFuller, Richard E. Seattle Art Museum. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1946, p. 23

Handbook, Seattle Art Museum: Selected Works from the Permanent Collections, Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1951, p. 101 (b&w)

Roark, Richard Paul, From Monumental To Proliforous In Nazca Pottery, Nawpa Pacha, 3, 1965, p. 27 and p. 39

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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