Nasca double spout and bridge with hummingbirds around flowers

Dublin Core

Title

Nasca double spout and bridge with hummingbirds around flowers

Description

This piece is a double-spout-and-bridge vessel decorated with a multitude of multicolored hummingbirds swarming around a pair of flowers.in shape, with a double-spout-and-bridge on the top. The overall shape is fairly straightforward in shape, but its detail comes in with what is rendered on the vessel’s surface. The base ceramic is a reddish brown, signaling that it was created in an oxidized atmosphere. It is minimally glossy, reflecting only a small amount of light. The vessel overall is decidedly polychrome, featuring hummingbirds of seven colors: yellow, red, pink, light blue, and white, with black outlines on a dark blue background. One of the flowers is white, and the other is yellow, and each has a dark center.
The hummingbirds swarm across the entire vessel, with some of their tails wrapping down to near its base. They are not positioned at random however. The birds all circle around the pair of flowers on each side of the vessel, seemingly jostling for a spot around the primary food sources of a hummingbird. Both the flowers and the hummingbirds are rendered naturalistically, with a fairly high level of detail present on the birds. This can be seen in countershading present on real hummingbirds, as well as individual wing and tail feathers painted on with black outlines.

Creator

Nasca

Date

Early Intermediate Period (200 BCE-600 CE)

Coverage

Peru--South Coast

Type

Three dimensional object
Ceramic

Format

13 (h) cm.
5 (h) in.

Identifier

1608-259

Relation

Jack Danciger Collection

Source

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

Rights

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.