Nasca bowl with chili peppers

Nasca bowl with chili peppers

The Early Nasca ceramic bowl is earthenware and moderately porous, giving the bowl a flat finish. The bowl is a low-lying vessel and has a wide circular opening. The base is moderately curved and not quite flat. The walls make up the majority of the bowls total height of 7”.

The bowl is polychromatic and features earthen slip tones. A brick red is the primary slip color that fills the entirety of the concave surface and a mustard brown fills the lower base of the convex surface. Orange, red and cream slip are the accent colors on a thick dark brown decorative band around the entire circumference of the convex wall. The decorative band utilizes naturalistic imagery to depict the repeated form of a large, prominent chili pepper all along the band. The decorative band circumnavigating the convex surface displays a distinct orange outline of a chili pepper. The interior of the peppers are composed of one cream stripe enclosed by two red stripes. The use of color suggests an understanding of shading. The chili peppers are all oriented the same and each chili pepper is separated by a thin vertical cream line. The chili peppers are identifiable as the species Capsacium baccatum, their common name is Aji Amarillo.

Nasca

Early Intermediate Period (200 BCE-600 CE)

Peru--South Coast

Three dimensional object

Ceramic

18 (h) cm.

7 (h) in.

1608-194

Jack Danciger Collection

Art and Art History Collection (AAHC), College of Fine Arts, The University of Texas at Austin

If you would like to publish this image in print or electronically, please contact the Curator of the Art & Art History Collection, Dr. Astrid Runggaldier, at astrid@austin.utexas.edu.