Qero Cup
Arts of the Americas
On View: Luce Visible Storage and Study Center, 5th Floor
The original elite Inca owner of this kero cup employed the European tradition of figural representation to help legitimize his high rank in a visual language easily recognizable to the crown. The cup includes full-length depictions of soldiers or warriors, both Inca and facepainted Chuncho (an Amazonian group regarded by the Inca in the period as savage), in a battle scene from the past. An agricultural scene with oxen and oxen-drawn plows, both introduced by the Spanish, is included below. The decoration is carried out in the highly prized colonial lacquerwork technique of barniz de Pasto.
El dueño original de este kero, un inca de la élite, utilizó la tradición europea de representación figurativa para ayudar a legitimar su alto rango con un lenguaje visual fácilmente reconocible para la corona. El vaso incluye representaciones de soldados o guerreros de cuerpo entero, tanto incas como chunchos de cara pintada (grupo amazónico considerado salvaje por los incas del periodo), en una escena bélica del pasado. Una escena agrícola con bueyes y arados arrastrados por bueyes, ambos introducidos por los españoles, se incluye debajo. La decoración se ha ejecutado con la altamente valorada técnica de lacado colonial de barniz de Pasto.
El dueño original de este kero, un inca de la élite, utilizó la tradición europea de representación figurativa para ayudar a legitimar su alto rango con un lenguaje visual fácilmente reconocible para la corona. El vaso incluye representaciones de soldados o guerreros de cuerpo entero, tanto incas como chunchos de cara pintada (grupo amazónico considerado salvaje por los incas del periodo), en una escena bélica del pasado. Una escena agrícola con bueyes y arados arrastrados por bueyes, ambos introducidos por los españoles, se incluye debajo. La decoración se ha ejecutado con la altamente valorada técnica de lacado colonial de barniz de Pasto.
CULTURE
Quechua
MEDIUM
Wood with pigment inlay
DATES
late 17th–18th century
PERIOD
Colonial Period
DIMENSIONS
7 7/8 x 6 1/8 x 6 1/8 in. (20 x 15.6 x 15.6 cm) (show scale)
COLLECTIONS
Arts of the Americas
ACCESSION NUMBER
42.149
CREDIT LINE
A. Augustus Healy Fund
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
Kero cup with two registers of figural scenes separated by relief bands of flowers and geometric motifs. In the top register, two Incas battle three face-painted Antis or Chunchos. They wear spotted jaguar skin tunics and headdresses with two feathers in each. One of them has already fallen and lies under a tree, while the other two hold bows and arrows. A third Inca, wearing a checkerboard tunic, leads a fourth Anti, who wears a more elaborate feather headdress than the others and is presumably their leader, toward a castle and a seated Inca, possibly the Emperor himself. A hunchbacked figure holds a parasol over him. Above and to the right, a bird holds a sling and a bag in its beak. The lower register is an agricultural scene, possibly a ceremony, with two men guiding plows that are drawn by teams of two oxen. Each man is followed by a woman: one planting seeds and the other holding a pair of kero cups. During the Colonial era, Inca themes were generally portrayed on kero cups.
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is on view in Luce Visible Storage and Study Center, 5th Floor
CAPTION
Quechua. Qero Cup, late 17th–18th century. Wood with pigment inlay, 7 7/8 x 6 1/8 x 6 1/8 in. (20 x 15.6 x 15.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund, 42.149. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 42.149_SL3.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 42.149_SL3.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply.
Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply).
For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch.
For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright.
If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
RECORD COMPLETENESS
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.
