Object Image

Bowl, Mythic Figures

During the second half of the first millennium A.D., the Wari peoples, centered in the Ayacucho region, dominated the south-central Andes. They interacted with contemporary peoples in far-flung areas such as the powerful city of Tiwanaku in present-day Bolivia and the peoples of the Nazca region on the southern coast of Peru. The nature of Wari's relationship with these and other peoples is still unclear, but their influence on Wari art is undisputed. While the shape of this vessel and the painting style—vivid slip paints of red, purple, yellow, gray, and white and the use of thick black outline—follows a long-standing southern coast tradition, its religious imagery is found on major stone monu...
6th-9th century
Ceramic
7.9 x 12.2cm
1979.206.385
Image and text © Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Permanent collection