Double spout and bridge vessel

Last updated
A bridge-spouted bottle from the Nasca culture, 100-300 AD Bridge-spouted Bottle with Anthropomorphic Mythical Being - warrior, 100-300 AD, Nasca culture, south coast Peru, earthenware with colored slips - Gardiner Museum, Toronto - DSC01301.JPG
A bridge-spouted bottle from the Nasca culture, 100-300 AD
Huaco figurative vessel of this form Nazca-pottery-(01).png
Huaco figurative vessel of this form

The double spout and bridge vessel was a form of usually [1] ceramic drinking container developed sometime before 500 BC by indigenous groups on the Peruvian coast. [2] True to its name, this type of bottle is distinguished by two spouts with a handle bridging them. First used by the Paracas culture, it was later adopted by the Nazca. While at first the Paracas tended to incise designs derived from the art of the Chavin culture on the surface of the vessels, [3] later on they began to treat the vessel as a sculptural form, an advance facilitated by developments in ceramic technology that allowed them construct vessels with thinner walls. [4] This tradition was continued by the Nazca, whose vessels were elaborately figurative (see illustration below right), decorated with polychrome glazes, or both.

The vessels were constructed by the coil method. The Nazca would then apply multicolored slip to achieve polychrome effects before the vessels were fired, an advance over the Paracas, who had painted the vessels with resins after firing. The Nazca technique allowed for much brighter and more permanent colors, whose sheen was enhanced by burnishing after the vessel was fired. [5]

Both the Paracas and the Nazca appear to have used this type of vessel for ritual purposes, as they are most often found in graves. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nazca Lines</span> Geoglyphs in the Nazca Desert, Peru

The Nazca Lines are a group of geoglyphs made in the soil of the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. They were created between 500 BC and 500 AD by people making depressions or shallow incisions in the desert floor, removing pebbles and leaving different-colored dirt exposed. There are two major phases of the Nazca lines, Paracas phase, from 400 to 200 BC, and Nazca phase, from 200 BC to 500 AD. In the years leading up to 2020, between 80 and 100 new figures had been found with the use of drones, and archaeologists believe that there are more to be found.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maya ceramics</span>

Maya ceramics are ceramics produced in the Pre-Columbian Maya culture of Mesoamerica. The vessels used different colors, sizes, and had varied purposes. Vessels for the elite could be painted with very detailed scenes, while utilitarian vessels were undecorated or much simpler. Elite pottery, usually in the form of straight-sided beakers called "vases", used for drinking, was placed in burials, giving a number of survivals in good condition. Individual examples include the Princeton Vase and the Fenton Vase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Department of Ica</span> First-level administrative division on the southwestern coast of Peru

Ica is a department and region of Peru. It borders the Pacific Ocean on the west; the Lima Region on the north; the Huancavelica and Ayacucho regions on the east; and the Arequipa Region on the south. Its capital is the city of Ica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nazca culture</span> Civilization in southern Peru, c. 100 BC–800 AD

The Nazca culture was the archaeological culture that flourished from c. 100 BC to 800 AD beside the arid, southern coast of Peru in the river valleys of the Rio Grande de Nazca drainage and the Ica Valley. Strongly influenced by the preceding Paracas culture, which was known for extremely complex textiles, the Nazca produced an array of crafts and technologies such as ceramics, textiles, and geoglyphs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bowl</span> Round, open-top container frequently used as tableware

A bowl is a typically round dish or container generally used for preparing, serving, storing, or consuming food. The interior of a bowl is characteristically shaped like a spherical cap, with the edges and the bottom forming a seamless curve. This makes bowls especially suited for holding liquids and loose food, as the contents of the bowl are naturally concentrated in its center by the force of gravity. The exterior of a bowl is most often round, but can be of any shape, including rectangular.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ceramics of Indigenous peoples of the Americas</span> Pottery produced by Indigenous people of the Americas

Ceramics of Indigenous peoples of the Americas is an art form with at least a 7500-year history in the Americas. Pottery is fired ceramics with clay as a component. Ceramics are used for utilitarian cooking vessels, serving and storage vessels, pipes, funerary urns, censers, musical instruments, ceremonial items, masks, toys, sculptures, and a myriad of other art forms.

<i>Buncheong</i> Type of traditional Korean ceramics

Buncheong (Korean: 분청), or punch'ong, ware is a traditional form of Korean stoneware, with a blue-green tone. Pieces are coated with white slip (ceramics), and decorative designs are added using a variety of techniques. This style originated in the 15th century and continues in a revived form today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pre-Columbian art</span> Art of the Pre-Columbian civilizations

Pre-Columbian art refers to the visual arts of indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, North, Central, and South Americas from at least 13,000 BCE to the European conquests starting in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era continued for a time after these in many places, or had a transitional phase afterwards. Many types of perishable artifacts that were once very common, such as woven textiles, typically have not been preserved, but Precolumbian monumental sculpture, metalwork in gold, pottery, and painting on ceramics, walls, and rocks have survived more frequently.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paracas culture</span> Archaeological culture of Peru

The Paracas culture was an Andean society existing between approximately 800 BCE and 100 BCE, with an extensive knowledge of irrigation and water management and that made significant contributions in the textile arts. It was located in what today is the Ica Region of Peru. Most information about the lives of the Paracas people comes from excavations at the large seaside Paracas site on the Paracas Peninsula, first formally investigated in the 1920s by Peruvian archaeologist Julio Tello.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pre-Columbian Peru</span>

Peruvian territory was inhabited 14,000 years ago by hunters and gatherers. Subsequent developments include the appearance of sedentary communities that developed agriculture and irrigation, and the emergence of complex socio-political hierarchies that created sophisticated civilizations, technology and monumental construction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-ground technique</span>

White-ground technique is a style of white ancient Greek pottery and the painting in which figures appear on a white background. It developed in the region of Attica, dated to about 500 BC. It was especially associated with vases made for ritual and funerary use, if only because the painted surface was more fragile than in the other main techniques of black-figure and red-figure vase painting. Nevertheless, a wide range of subjects are depicted.

Geometric art is a phase of Greek art, characterized largely by geometric motifs in vase painting, that flourished towards the end of the Greek Dark Ages, c. 900–700 BC. Its center was in Athens, and from there the style spread among the trading cities of the Aegean. The Greek Dark Ages lasted from c. 1100 to 750 BC and include two periods, the Protogeometric period and the Geometric period, in reference to the characteristic pottery style. The vases had various uses or purposes within Greek society, including, but not limited to, funerary vases and symposium vases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint-Porchaire ware</span> 16th-century French pottery

Saint-Porchaire ware is the earliest very high quality French pottery. It is white lead-glazed earthenware often conflated with true faience, that was made for a restricted French clientele from perhaps the 1520s to the 1550s. Only about seventy pieces of this ware survive, all of them well known before World War II. None have turned up in the last half-century. It is characterized by the use of inlays of clay in a different coloured clay, and, as Victorian revivalists found, is extremely difficult to make.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridge-spouted vessel</span>

A bridge-spouted vessel is a particular design of ewer originating in antiquity; there is typically a connecting element between the spout and filling aperture, and the spout is a completely independent aperture from the usually smaller central fill opening. Early examples of the bridge-spouted vessel are found in ancient Persia in the early Iron Age and on Crete. This type of vessel typically appears in the Bronze Age or early Iron Age. A very early example of a bridge-spouted vessel in Minoan pottery has been recovered at the ancient palace of Phaistos on Minoan Crete, dating to the Bronze Age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Visual arts of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas</span>

The visual arts of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic practices of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present. These include works from South America and North America, which includes Central America and Greenland. The Siberian Yupiit, who have great cultural overlap with Native Alaskan Yupiit, are also included.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cameo glass</span> Form of glass art

Cameo glass is a luxury form of glass art produced by cameo glass engraving or etching and carving through fused layers of differently colored glass to produce designs, usually with white opaque glass figures and motifs on a dark-colored background. The technique is first seen in ancient Roman art of about 30 BC, where it was an alternative to the more luxurious engraved gem vessels in cameo style that used naturally layered semi-precious gemstones such as onyx and agate. Glass allowed consistent and predictable colored layers, even for round objects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stirrup spout vessel</span>

A stirrup spout vessel is a type of ceramic vessel common among several Pre-Columbian cultures of South America beginning in the early 2nd millennium BCE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moche portrait vessel</span> Ancient realist statues from pre-Columbian South America

Moche portrait vessels are ceramic vessels featuring highly individualized and naturalistic representations of human faces that are unique to the Moche culture of Peru.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calima culture</span> Archaeological culture of western Colombia

Calima culture is a series of pre-Columbian cultures from the Valle del Cauca in Colombia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ceramic art</span> Decorative objects made from clay and other raw materials by the process of pottery

Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take varied forms, including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is a visual art. While some ceramics are considered fine art, such as pottery or sculpture, most are considered to be decorative, industrial or applied art objects. Ceramic art can be created by one person or by a group, in a pottery or a ceramic factory with a group designing and manufacturing the artware.

References

  1. There are a few late silver or gold examples, such as the ones illustrated here and here Archived June 10, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  2. "Whistling bottle with feline face [Peru; Paracas] (62.266.72)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.(October 2006) Retrieved 11 May 2009
  3. Covered Double Spout and Bridge Vessel, 800-100 B.C. Entry on the website of the LACMA retrieved 11 May 2009
  4. "Gourd bottle [Peru; Topará] (63.232.55)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (October 2006) Retrieved 11 May 2009
  5. 1 2 Double spout and bridge vessel with hummingbirds, on the Website of the British Museum. Retrieved 11 May 2009. Slip firing fuses the pigmented minerals with the clay itself, while resin simply sat on the surface, and as an organic material was subject to decay