Art Institute of ChicagoPublic domain

Vessel in the Form of a Royal Messenger with Ritual Runners

Moche · 100 BCE–500 CE

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/7966/the-ancient-americas-art-from-sacred-landscapes">The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes</a>, Oct. 10, 1992–Jan. 3, 1993, cat. 173, as Vessel Depicting Ritual Runners; Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Feb. 4–April 18, 1993; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, June 6–Aug. 15, 1993.

Literature

Erwin O. Christensen, Primitive Art (Viking Press, 1955), 262, fig. 235 (ill.), as Stirrup Pottery Jar with Seated Figure on Top and a Painted Frieze of Warriors on the Body.
Allen Wardwell, Primitive Art in the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 1965), fig. 16 (ill.).
Richard Townsend, ed., The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1992), 313, 379, cat. 173, fig. 17 (ill.), as Vessel Depicting Ritual Runners.
Richard Townsend with Elizabeth Pope, Indian Art of the Americas at the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 2016), 313, cat. 264.

Comparables