Drinking Vessel with Jaguar Handle

Date

650-0 BCE

Creator

<span>The container of this stone vessel has the flared form of the Andean kero (q'ero), a relatively lightweight gold, silver, ceramic, or wooden drinking vessel with no handle. The great weight more than 14.5 pounds and the handle, a powerfully depicted jaguar, sets this drinking vessel apart from all others. The juxtaposition of the vessel's smooth, polished surface with the animal's pelage of recessed spots stretched over tensed musculature also creates a dynamic contrast with the vessel's simpler form. A rich patina of many years of wear has reduced the depth of the spots on the back and sides, especially the left side, in contrast to the more modest wear on the remainder of the handle. This strongly suggests the vessel was held in the left hand, with the jaguar facing the drinker.<br/><br/>The surface of the container also is reduced on the side opposite the handle since the drinker would need to support the vessel with his right hand. The jaguar's tapering muzzle, with its bared teeth and openwork mouth, creates a ferocious image with which any powerful leader or shaman would wish to associate himself. The spaces between the front and back pairs of legs were not pierced through in order to strengthen the attachment of the jaguar's body to the vessel.<br/><br/>The consumption of fermented alcohol is a common feature of ritual practice in Mesoamerica, Central, and South America, and the beverage may have been used with other substances to produce ecstatic states in which the drinker could enter the spirit world.<br/><br/>from O'Grady, Myth & Melancholy: The Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. O'Grady Collection of Southern Cone Art (Notre Dame, 2014)world.</span>