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Plate with Supernatural Being
900–600 BC
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
This plate is carved with a feline supernatural sacrificer who holds a severed human head in its clawed paws. The diagonal clusters of plant foliage at the figure’s shoulders and hips imply that death is tied to the earth’s fertility, one being a precondition for the other. The figure, therefore, may be an apotheosis of the life-death cycle.
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Details
- Title: Plate with Supernatural Being
- Date Created: 900–600 BC
- Physical Dimensions: Overall: 4 x 16.4 cm (1 9/16 x 6 7/16 in.)
- Provenance: Margrith Brenner, Zurich, Switzerland, sold to Private Collector, Private Collector, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Type: Ceramic
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/2021.131
- Medium: stone (probably steatite [soapstone])
- Fun Fact: The supernatural figure on this small plate may be an apotheosis of the life-death cycle.
- Department: Art of the Americas
- Culture: Central Andes, north coast, probably Jequetepeque Valley, Cupisnique people
- Credit Line: J.H. Wade Trust Fund
- Collection: AA - Andes
- Accession Number: 2021.131
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