Ai-Apec stirrup spout vessel
ca. AD 200-500
Ai-Apec is a chief deity of the Moche, often depicted as feline-fanged. Here he exists in a fantastical mountain landscape wearing a tunic, collar, and pendant earrings in the form of feline heads and clutching a staff. His helmet is surmounted by a pair of projecting feline heads with sinuous serpent bodies encircling the base of the mountain. The mountain peaks are topped with snail heads.
Blackware ceramic
10 x 8 1/2 x 8 in. (25.4 x 21.6 x 20.3 cm)
Gift in honor of Assen Nicolov
2018.3.2
Provenance: [Galerie El Jaguar, Caracas, Venezuela]; sold to Lenora and Jimmy Belilty, Paris, France, probably by 1979; [Sotheby’s, New York, Pre-Columbian Art, Nov. 23, 1998, sale no. 7224, lot no. 14, reproduced]; purchased at auction by Assen and Christine Nicolov, Seattle, Washington; to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2018
Photo: Elizabeth Mann