Moche stirrup-spout bottle with seated figure
CA0324 · Visual art · Peru; 200–500 CE
Historical / contextual reference
Photograph of the specific selected museum object; identity checked by object ID and accession.
Credit: Moche artist(s) / The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1882
Rights: Public domain; Met Open Access
A seated person becomes the body of a ceramic bottle, joining a human image to a container. Above the figure, two branches meet in one spout, the form that modern catalogues call a stirrup spout. The figure wears a headdress with a small feline face. The Metropolitan Museum explains that such animal-fronted headgear may have indicated status or occupation, but does not identify this individual. This makes the bottle useful for teaching careful interpretation: visible details, plausible explanations and known names are different kinds of evidence. Preserve its shape and scale as well as its decoration, since the object was not simply a flat picture of a person.
Why preserve it: Curatorial interpretation: a vessel can combine practical form, skilled modelling and social imagery. It also gives future readers practice in distinguishing what can be seen from what scholars infer.
Keep in mind: The bottle is accession 82.1.30. The meaning of the spout and headdress remains interpretive. Do not state the figure’s identity or an evaporation-prevention function as established fact.