Kero Cup in Shape of Head

Item number 39.563 from the Brooklyn Museum.

Public

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Description

The vessel is constructed from a single piece of wood. On the front, a face is carved; on the back, the hair provides a panel for a figural scene in which an Inca ruler, sitting on a low stool and holding a shield, is presented with a prisoner of war whose face is painted with three horizontal bands of color like the face on the kero cup itself. The scene also includes a figure holding a parasol over another figure and a seated feline. The forehead forms the rim of the cup and the neck forms the foot of the vessel. Inca themes were used on kero cups throughout the Colonial era.