{"product_id":"moche-mountain-sacrifice-scene-stirrup-spout-vessel","title":"Moche Mountain Sacrifice Scene Stirrup-Spout Vessel","description":"\u003cp\u003eNorth Coast Peru, Moche culture, Early Intermediate Period, ca. AD 400–700\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eModeled in buff earthenware as a many-peaked ceremonial mountain populated by a dense assembly of small seated attendant figures nestled among its jagged summits, with a larger frontal figure at the base of the massif whose face is marked with a large toothy mouth; vertical body markings, likely denoting the deity Ai-Apaec, a principal deity and a participant in sacrifice scenes, a theme closely related to the Moche belief that mountain summits were the setting for offerings intended to draw rain and blood down into the valley below. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe cream slip ground is accented with iron-red and dark brown-black pigment picking out headdresses, tunics, and facial markings on the attendant figures, while the arching stirrup spout, its dark chocolate-brown surface burnished to a deep sheen, rises from the rear of the mountain form in the bifurcated handle-and-spout configuration characteristic of the North Coast tradition from the second millennium BC onward. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMeasuring 7 in H. x 6.5 in W. (17.8 x 16.5 cm), the vessel invites direct comparison with the Metropolitan Museum of Art's celebrated \"Stirrup-Spout Bottle with Mountain Sacrifice Scene\" (acc. no. 64.228.64), in which a five-peaked mountain likewise hosts a cast of human and supernatural figures gathered around a sacrificial narrative, as well as with related mountain-sacrifice compositions housed at the Museo Larco (ML003106) and the Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú (C-03300).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProvenance: acquired from the James Weber Collection, San Francisco, California, 1950s–2000.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Art for Eternity","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53918100095290,"sku":"17804","price":3450.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0775\/5120\/6714\/files\/17804.jpg?v=1786898915","url":"https:\/\/howardnowes.com\/products\/moche-mountain-sacrifice-scene-stirrup-spout-vessel","provider":"Art for Eternity","version":"1.0","type":"link"}