Art Institute of ChicagoPublic domain

Portrait Vessel

Moche · 600–700

Provenance

Ownership history

Eduard Gaffron (1861–1931), Lima, Peru, from 1892 to 1912, then Berlin, from 1912 [History of the Department report (Joanne Behrens, 1985) and correspondence in curatorial file]; by descent to his children Mercedes Gaffron (1908–1993), Berlin then Durham, NC, and Hans Gaffron (1902–1979), Berlin then Chicago [correspondence and documentation of the Gaffron Collection in curatorial file]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1955.

Recorded by Art Institute of Chicago.

Exhibitions

Art Institute of Chicago, <a href="https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/3761/arts-of-ancient-peru-edward-gaffron-collection">Arts of the Ancient Peru: Eduard Gaffron Collection</a>, May 6–Sept. 30, 1952, no cat.
New York, American Museum of Natural History, Art and Life in Old Peru: An Exhibition, from Sept. 25, 1961–Jan. 1, 1962, cat.
San Antonio Museum of Art, Retratos: 2,000 Years of Latin American Portraits, Feb. 4-Apr. 30, 2006, cat.; New York, El Museo del Barrio, Dec. 3, 2004–Mar. 20, 2005, San Diego Museum of Art, Apr. 16–July 12, 2005; Miami Beach, FL, Bass Museum of Art, July 23–Oct. 2, 2005, Washington, DC, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Oct. 21, 2005–Jan. 8, 2006.

Literature

Walter Lehmann and Heinrich Ubbelohde-Doering, Kunstgeschichte des Alten Peru (Ernst Wasmuth Verlag, 1924), 81 (ill.).
Heinrich Ubbelohde-Doering, Old Peruvian Art (E. Weyhe, 1936), 14 (ill.).
Heinrich Ubbelohde-Doering, "Portrats der Vorzeit," Atlantis (Oct. 1936): 598-607 (ill.).
Heinrich Ubbelohde-Doering, The Art of Ancient Peru (Praeger, 1952), 222-23 (ill.).
Heinrich Ubbelohde-Doering, The Art of Ancient Peru, 2nd ed. (Praeger, 1954), 222–23 (ill.).
Erwin O. Christensen, Primitive Art (Viking Press, 1955), 261, fig. 233 (ill.), as Pottery Stirrup Vessel in Form of a Portrait Head.
Junius B. Bird, Art and Life in Old Peru: An Exhibition, exh. cat. (American Museum of Natural History, 1961).
Junius B. Bird, “Art and Life in Old Peru: An Exhibition," Curator: The Museum Journal 5, no. 2 (Apr. 1962): 196–97, fig. 46 (ill.).
Allen Wardwell, Primitive Art in the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 1965), cat. 17 (ill.).
John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago (Thames and Hudson, 1970), 244–45 (ill.), as Portrait Vessel with a Stirrup Spout.
Walter Lehmann and Heinrich Ubbelohde-Doering, The Art of Old Peru (Hacker Art Books, 1975), 81 (ill.).
John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago, revised ed. (Thames and Hudson, 1977, reprinted 1983, 1987), 244–45 (ill.), as Portrait Vessel with a Stirrup Spout.

Comparables

Stirrup-spout bottle with seated figure

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ear ornament with winged runner

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ear ornament with winged runner

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Shirt

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Portrait Head Bottle

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Stirrup-spout bottle with mountain sacrifice scene

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Stirrup-spout bottle with combat scene

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bird jar

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Museum holdings, not sale records. Auction results are only shown when a licensed price source is connected.

Research assistant