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HOME :
Pre-Columbian Art :
Chimu Art : Chimu Blackware Double-Bodied Whistle Vessel
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Chimu Blackware Double-Bodied Whistle Vessel - K.104
Origin: Northern Coast of Peru
Circa: 900
AD
to 1200
AD
Dimensions:
16" (40.6cm) high
Collection: Pre-Columbian
Style: Chimu
Medium: Terracotta
$6,000.00
Location: United States
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| Description |
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The Chimu culture arose around 800 A.D. and
flourished until the Incan conquest about six
hundred years later. Their civilization was
centered at their capital Chan Chan, about 300
miles north of Lima, literally meaning “Sun Sun,”
the largest Pre-Columbian city in Peru estimated
to contain almost one hundred thousand citizens.
The Chimu believed the sea, which they called
“Ni,” was the origin of life, a theory also
proposed by modern science and evolution.
Thanks to their sea-faring skills, the Chimu were
able to survive, nestled in between the desert
and the sea. The sea was everything to them: an
endless supply of food and the source of
inspiration for their most imaginative myths,
legends, and artwork. Agriculture was also vital,
and the Chimu drew up a vast number of
irrigation works demonstrating immense
engineering skill, some of which are still in use
today. Today, aside from the astounding mud
ruins of Chan Chan remarkably well preserved in
the heat of the desert, the Chimú are perhaps
best known for their distinctive black glazed
pottery influenced by their predecessors: the
Moche.
The artists of ancient Peru drew their inspiration
from the natural world. The flora and fauna of
the region provived a vivid repertoire of motifs
which skilled potters shaped into memorable
vessels. Some of these pots served a ritual
function, others were more whimsical in nature.
On this splendid blackware vessel a jungle
simian with almost human feautres perches atop
a spout while schools of fish swim in opposite
directions around the bowl. As we hold it in our
hands and coax out its delicate whistle, our
senses are transported back to an exotic and
myterious world.
- (K.104)
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