Huaco: Early Moche Culture, Peru, A.D. 100-450.

Huaco: Early Moche Culture, Peru, 100-450 AD.
Terracotta.
Bibliography: Makowski, Krzystof, Rosenzweif, Alfredo, Diaz Jimenes, Maria Jesus, Offerings for the Afterlife - Peruvian Ceramics from the Maiman Collection, Kal Press LTD, Israel, 2006, p. 158.
Provenance: Kemper Collection, Switzerland. Donated to the "Museum of Islamic Art", Jerusalem, in the 1970s. Acquired by Yossef Maiman in 1991. Property of Yossef Maiman.
Measurements: 16 x 9.5 x 12 cm.
Huaco zoomorphic with bichrome effigy in the form of a duck with the beak resting on the chest and folded wings. It has small handle stirrup in the superior part of the head and wide cylindrical beak.
Settled on the northern coast of Peru, the Moche culture developed in the valleys of Lambayeque, Chicama, Moche and Viru, between 1 and 800 AD. This region is characterized by a desert crossed by several watercourses, which flow into an ocean particularly rich in marine resources. The Moche artisans achieved masterpieces in ceramics, weaving, and gold and silver work. Their characteristic style encompasses the most diverse materials, such as pyrography gourds, mural painting, feather art, and body painting and tattooing. The decoration of the ceramics demonstrates a mastery of pottery work rarely surpassed, resorting to the techniques of incising, bas-relief by means of stamping and painting on smooth surfaces. An important part of these objects were made in specialized workshops controlled by the state, in which pieces were made in series with molds. These vessels not only show a great variety of shapes and decorative styles, but also bear representations of myths and rituals. Among the ceramic forms, the so-called "portrait bottles" or vessels where the face of an important personality in society is portrayed stand out. In them it is possible to observe in great detail the characteristic facial features, the use of facial painting or tattoos and the use of complicated headdresses. This "portrait" capacity of Moche pottery can also be observed in the representations of possibly daily scenes or in erotic scenes, as well as in the effigies that show hunchbacks, blind people, harelips and other illnesses.