Jar
1 of 2
Object Label
Agricultural fertility is the subject of this Nasca jar, on which four anthropomorphic monkeys—animal representations with human characteristics—hold or harvest bean pods. Further reinforcing this fertility theme, the monkeys display attributes of other animals related to fertility: the squiggly tail of a tadpole, an amphibian associated with water that transforms into a frog, and the feathered wings of an insect, beneficial for spreading pollen.
La fertilidad agrícola es el tema de esta vasija Nasca, en la cual cuatro monos antropomórficos—representaciones animales con características humanas—sostienen o cosechan vainas de frijol. Reforzando aún más el tema de la fertilidad, los monos presentan atributos de otros animales también relacionados con la fertilidad: la cola serpenteante del renacuajo (un anfibio asociado con agua que se transforma en rana) y las alas como emplumadas de un insecto, beneficiosas para diseminar polen.
Caption
Nasca. Jar, 325–440. Ceramic, pigments, 6 x 3 3/4 x 3 3/4 in. (15.2 x 9.5 x 9.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc., 86.224.8. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.86.224.8_view1.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Culture
Title
Jar
Date
325–440
Geography
Place found: South Coast, Peru
Medium
Ceramic, pigments
Classification
Dimensions
6 x 3 3/4 x 3 3/4 in. (15.2 x 9.5 x 9.5 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc.
Accession Number
86.224.8
Rights
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.
Frequent Art Questions
It looks so cute!
It really is! The animal is a hybrid monkey. The tail of the monkey, which is curly, is based on tadpoles, and the stance is closer to that of a human. The tadpole trait was added to the monkey as a reference to fertility. Showing a being as a hybrid was one way of indicating that it is a supernatural being in ancient Nazca art.
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