Slide 1
A face becomes a vessel
Moche portrait vessels give a ceramic container the features of a human face. Sculptural likeness and the form of a bottle coexist.
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Many use a stirrup-shaped spout, a form widely used on Peru's North Coast. The portrait belongs to a longer vessel tradition rather than inventing the container type from nothing.
Slide 2
A mould can repeat a likeness
Moche potters used moulds to make multiple vessels from a model. Similar faces can therefore appear on more than one surviving object.
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Painting added further distinctions after shaping. Cream and red slips could organise facial details and head coverings, so repetition of form did not eliminate every later choice.
Slide 3
Details suggest particular people
Some Moche portrait vessels preserve distinctive facial features. Researchers have identified repeated representations that appear to show particular individuals.
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A recognisable individual need not be named in surviving evidence. The ability to compare faces is different from knowing a sitter's biography or political office.
Slide 4
Use could precede burial
Portrait vessels have been found in tombs, but evidence of wear and discarded fragments suggests that some were used during life.
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Burial is therefore one stage in an object's history. Treating every surviving vessel as made solely for a tomb would overlook evidence of its earlier handling.
Slide 5
The buried person need not be the sitter
A portrait vessel found in a tomb does not automatically represent the person buried there. Archaeological comparisons challenge that assumption.
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Portraits of men have been found with women, and the same apparent individual appears in different tombs. The association between image and burial must be established rather than presumed.
Sources
- Moche Portrait Vessels
Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Portrait Head Bottle
Metropolitan Museum of Art