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Paracas Cavernas. <em>Funerary Mask</em>, 300 B.C.E.–1. Ceramic, resin, and pigments, 11 3/16 x 10 3/16 x 7 11/16 in. (28.4 x 25.9 x 19.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 64.94. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 64.94_view2_SL2.jpg)
Paracas Cavernas. Funerary Mask, 300 B.C.E.–1. Ceramic, resin, and pigments, 11 3/16 x 10 3/16 x 7 11/16 in. (28.4 x 25.9 x 19.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 64.94. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 64.94_view2_SL2.jpg)
Paracas Cavernas. <em>Funerary Mask</em>, 300 B.C.E.–1. Ceramic, resin, and pigments, 11 3/16 x 10 3/16 x 7 11/16 in. (28.4 x 25.9 x 19.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 64.94. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 64.94_view2_SL2.jpg)

Paracas Cavernas. Funerary Mask, 300 B.C.E.–1. Ceramic, resin, and pigments, 11 3/16 x 10 3/16 x 7 11/16 in. (28.4 x 25.9 x 19.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 64.94. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 64.94_view2_SL2.jpg)

Paracas Cavernas. <em>Funerary Mask</em>, 300 B.C.E.–1. Ceramic, resin, and pigments, 11 3/16 x 10 3/16 x 7 11/16 in. (28.4 x 25.9 x 19.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 64.94. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 64.94_SL3.jpg)

Paracas Cavernas. Funerary Mask, 300 B.C.E.–1. Ceramic, resin, and pigments, 11 3/16 x 10 3/16 x 7 11/16 in. (28.4 x 25.9 x 19.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 64.94. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 64.94_SL3.jpg)

Paracas Cavernas. <em>Funerary Mask</em>, 300 B.C.E.–1. Ceramic, resin, and pigments, 11 3/16 x 10 3/16 x 7 11/16 in. (28.4 x 25.9 x 19.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 64.94. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Dawn Lohnas, CUR.64.94_uv_Dawn_Lohnas_photograph.jpg)

Paracas Cavernas. Funerary Mask, 300 B.C.E.–1. Ceramic, resin, and pigments, 11 3/16 x 10 3/16 x 7 11/16 in. (28.4 x 25.9 x 19.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 64.94. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Dawn Lohnas, CUR.64.94_uv_Dawn_Lohnas_photograph.jpg)

Paracas Cavernas. <em>Funerary Mask</em>, 300 B.C.E.–1. Ceramic, resin, and pigments, 11 3/16 x 10 3/16 x 7 11/16 in. (28.4 x 25.9 x 19.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 64.94. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 64.94_threequarter_top_acetate_bw.jpg)

Paracas Cavernas. Funerary Mask, 300 B.C.E.–1. Ceramic, resin, and pigments, 11 3/16 x 10 3/16 x 7 11/16 in. (28.4 x 25.9 x 19.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 64.94. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 64.94_threequarter_top_acetate_bw.jpg)

Paracas Cavernas. <em>Funerary Mask</em>, 300 B.C.E.–1. Ceramic, resin, and pigments, 11 3/16 x 10 3/16 x 7 11/16 in. (28.4 x 25.9 x 19.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 64.94. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 64.94_left_acetate_bw.jpg)

Paracas Cavernas. Funerary Mask, 300 B.C.E.–1. Ceramic, resin, and pigments, 11 3/16 x 10 3/16 x 7 11/16 in. (28.4 x 25.9 x 19.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 64.94. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 64.94_left_acetate_bw.jpg)

Paracas Cavernas. <em>Funerary Mask</em>, 300 B.C.E.–1. Ceramic, resin, and pigments, 11 3/16 x 10 3/16 x 7 11/16 in. (28.4 x 25.9 x 19.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 64.94. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 64.94_front_acetate_bw.jpg)

Paracas Cavernas. Funerary Mask, 300 B.C.E.–1. Ceramic, resin, and pigments, 11 3/16 x 10 3/16 x 7 11/16 in. (28.4 x 25.9 x 19.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 64.94. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 64.94_front_acetate_bw.jpg)

Paracas Cavernas. <em>Funerary Mask</em>, 300 B.C.E.–1. Ceramic, resin, and pigments, 11 3/16 x 10 3/16 x 7 11/16 in. (28.4 x 25.9 x 19.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 64.94. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 64.94_threequarter_right_acetate_bw.jpg)

Paracas Cavernas. Funerary Mask, 300 B.C.E.–1. Ceramic, resin, and pigments, 11 3/16 x 10 3/16 x 7 11/16 in. (28.4 x 25.9 x 19.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 64.94. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 64.94_threequarter_right_acetate_bw.jpg)

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Funerary Mask

Arts of the Americas

This colorful mask, which would have been attached to a mummy bundle, represents the Oculate Being, which was named for its large, round eyes and may have been an early fertility-cult deity. The mask has a long, projecting nose, and four undulating serpents are painted across it, each with two heads that form projecting tabs. The three tabs below the smiling, toothy mouth may represent a tongue and possibly fangs. At the top is a human figure with the face of an Oculate Being.
CULTURE Paracas Cavernas
MEDIUM Ceramic, resin, and pigments
  • Possible Place Collected: South Coast, Peru
    • DATES 300 B.C.E.–1
    DIMENSIONS 11 3/16 x 10 3/16 x 7 11/16 in. (28.4 x 25.9 x 19.5 cm)  (show scale)
    COLLECTIONS Arts of the Americas
    ACCESSION NUMBER 64.94
    CREDIT LINE Frank L. Babbott Fund and Dick S. Ramsay Fund
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Ceramic funerary mask decorated with colored resin enamels. Mask is composed of a Paracas bowl to which the details have been applied by incision or application. Eyes consist of 2 interior cones decorated with concentric circles. 11 tabs project from rim of the face, 8 of which represent serpent heads. A 12th projection at the top of the mask forms the head of a human who is impersonating the Oculate Being by wearing this deity's mask. Its body is represented two dimensionally by incisions embellished with red, yellow and green resin enamel. Its nose is a smaller version of the huge proboscis of the mask.
    EXHIBITIONS
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Paracas Cavernas. Funerary Mask, 300 B.C.E.–1. Ceramic, resin, and pigments, 11 3/16 x 10 3/16 x 7 11/16 in. (28.4 x 25.9 x 19.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 64.94. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 64.94_view2_SL2.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 64.94_view2_SL2.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2014
    "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.
    Paracas Cavernas. <em>Funerary Mask</em>, 300 B.C.E.–1. Ceramic, resin, and pigments, 11 3/16 x 10 3/16 x 7 11/16 in. (28.4 x 25.9 x 19.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 64.94. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 64.94_view2_SL2.jpg)

    TAGS

    mask
    ceremonial

    TAGS

    mask
    ceremonial

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