The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Sea Lion Pup Vessel

Sea Lion Pup Vessel

200–850 CE
Overall: 19.7 x 15.5 x 16 cm (7 3/4 x 6 1/8 x 6 5/16 in.)
Location: 232 Andean

Did You Know?

Moche potters were skilled at producing charming images using only red and white slip.

Description

Sea lions commonly appear in Moche art as effigy vessels, like this appealing pup, or in complex scenes that often show them as the targets of human hunters. They may have been prized in part for the beach pebbles found in their stomachs; modern Peruvian folk healers consider such pebbles to have powerful medicinal qualities. Also, colonial-period natives believed that sea lions carried the dead to off-shore islands, an idea that could date to Moche times.
  • ?-1968
    (André Emmerich, New York, NY, sold to Benno Mattel)
    1968-1969
    Benno Mattel, Uruguay, gifted to his daughter Mrs. Ute Mahr
    1969-2013
    Mrs. Ute Mahr, Bridgeport, Connecticut, sold to David Bernstein Fine Arts
    2013-2014
    (David Bernstein Fine Arts, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2014-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lapiner, Alan C. Art of Ancient Peru and Ecuador: A Sales Exhibition Organized in Cooperation with André Emmerich. New York: Arts of the Four Quarters, Ltd, 1968. fig. 29
    Lapiner, Alan C. Pre-Columbian Art of South America. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1976. p. 128, fig. 277
  • {{cite web|title=Sea Lion Pup Vessel|url=false|author=|year=200–850 CE|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2014.375