Fineline Painting of the MOCHE on Tribalarts.com

by Sebastian Miller

In 1968, Christopher Donnan and Donna McClelland began to develop what came to be known as the Moche Archive at the University of California at Los Angeles, which focused on the development and subject matter of fineline painting. After more than thirty years their remarkable efforts at documentation and analysis of more than 2,300 examples of fineline ceramics have lead to a milestone publication and exhibition, both produced by the Fowler Museum of Cultural History at UCLA, and the images and drawings in this article. Their findings are described briefly here. The exhibition is on view through February 18, 200

click on small images for full size images with captions

Fig 1

ON DECEMBER 4, 1909, the Illustrated London News reported that a collection of 250 prehistoric pottery objects excavated from the Chicama Valley on the north coast of Peru had recently surfaced in London. The reporter was lavish in his admiration for these exotic works and their creators, "a highly civilised people who lived and flourished about 5000 bc, when this England of ours was inhabited, if at all, by a race of skinclad savages." Part of the collection was acquired by the British Museum that same month, and shortly thereafter the Burlington Magazine also ran an article on it, this one by Keeper Charles H. Read. He was less effusive in his assessment of the material, noting that "the readers of the Burlington Magazine will probably be somewhat surprised at a subject like the present being thought worthy to come within the scope of an artistic publication." The material in question was to ultimately be associated with the Moche civilization of northern coastal Peru.

Stirrup vessels


Fig 2	Fig 3	Fig 4

The Moche collection that created such a furor in the London arts community had been excavated by Thomas Hewitt Myring, an employee of a British company in Bolivia. While staying at a friend's sugar cane plantation in the Chicama Valley of Peru, probably before 1903, he mounted an expedition to dig for "Inca gold." Instead he found ceramics, intact and in quantity, in a large sandy tumulus that contained some 2,000 graves. In late 1909 he sold the collection to a Dutch philanthropist, Henry Van den Bergh, who between 1909 and 1913 donated parts of it to the British Museum, the Rijksmusuem voor Volkenkunde in Leiden, and the Museum of the American Indian in New York City, bringing it to the attention of the academic community and the public in Europe and the United States.

These ancient ceramics were considered remarkable for their antiquity and exoticism, but also for their quality. The colorfully slipped and meticulously crafted thin-walled vessels rivaled in artistry-and indeed at times surpassed-the finest ceramics of Classical antiquity. The most common form of ceramic produced by the Moche was the stirrup vessel, in its simplest form a closed body surmounted by an arched tube that pierces it in two points, and is itself pierced by a vertical spout. The majority of the decorated examples are modeled into three-dimensional sculptural forms depicting animals, human and supernatural figures, portraits of important individuals, and a variety of other motifs familiar from the daily life and mythology of the time.

Fig 5

Although these vessels are often found in elite Moche burials, they were used by the Moche during life. Many of the vessels in grave deposits show signs of abrasion and other wear, and fragments are found in domestic rubbish heaps and those of ceremonial precincts, where they had been discarded after being broken, presumably during use. Despite their esoteric configuration, the vessels were intended to hold liquid, possibly a beverage made from fermented maize known as chica. The reason for the stirrup spout configuration remains a mystery to this day; the looped spout may have served as a handle and may also have provided an air vent for ease of pouring, but other solutions to these issues were possible in forms less taxing to the potter. What is known with certainty is that the stirrup vessel had been produced in the north coastal region for more than 1500 years before the rise of Moche civilization and continued into the early colonial period, over 700 years after the demise of this culture.

The Moche lived in a narrow swath of coastal land slightly more than 500 kilometers from north to south and some 50 to 75 kilometers from east to west. This largely arid plain between the Andean Cordillera and the Pacific is cut by a number of fertile river valleys, which were the sites of human habitation. Geographically, Moche culture was split into northern and southern sections, divided by the daunting wasteland of Pampa de Paiján in the middle. Moche society was highly stratified, and was tightly controlled by a hierarchy of priests and warriors. It was an agrarian culture that relied on a sophisticated network of canals to grow corn, beans, peppers, peanuts, and a variety of other crops. A few animal species were domesticated, and fish, mollusks, and crustaceans were fished from the rich coastal waters, rivers, and marshes. The Moche did not have a writing system, nor are they known to have had money. Resources instead appear to have been the property of the elite, who distributed them down the social ladder as needed. In addition to fine ceramics, Moche artisans produced remarkable gold work, textiles, and monumental architecture, including pyramids and temple complexes.

Fig 6

Moche chronology has undergone considerable revision since the Illustrated London News dated it alongside the earliest cultures of Egypt and Mesopotamia. It is now known to have thrived between approximately ad 100 and ad 800. In 1948, Rafael Larco Hoyle, a Peruvian amateur archaeologist who made an extensive study of a vast quantity of ceramics excavated from his family's property and elsewhere in the Virú and Chicama valleys, divided Moche artistic production into five phases, I-V, with I being the earliest. Although specific dates are not generally associated with these divisions (each of which probably lasted for a century or two), the sequence he established is still considered valid, and has been reinforced by recent scholarship.

Because of the varied subject matter and remarkably sophisticated rendering of Moche modeled ceramics, we are allowed a rare glimpse into this vanished culture. Our view is confined, however, as each ceramic sculpture is generally limited to a single figure or element, devoid of context. We may see a remarkably rendered warrior with all his accouterments, but he crouches in isolation above the vessel of which he is a part. However, a small percentage of Moche ceramics, most often unmodeled stirrup vessels, are decorated with intricate painted motifs rendered in a style that has come to be known as fineline painting. Here the subject matter is more complex than the modeled ceramics will allow. Figures are shown in groups, interacting with each other and their environment. Warfare, ritual activity, mythological stories, and other tableaus are clearly rendered with all their varied elements.

Fig 7

Like Moche modeled ceramics, fineline painted ware began with relative simplicity in phases I and II, and gradually gained complexity and artistic sophistication. Throughout the Moche period, the technique for decorating these vessels was similar. After the pot had been made, the scene that was to adorn it was roughed in by incising on the leather-hard surface. This was done to define the layout and relationship of elements to one another before painting. Once the artist was satisfied with the rough layout, the painting commenced, usually with an iron-rich red slip over white, although white over red examples are known to exist. Rare trichrome examples, incorporating an orange slip commenced in phase III. Polychrome examples using four or more colors are known from phase V. Once the design was completed, the vessel would be burnished with a smooth stone or polished bone, and then fired in a pit that allowed oxygen to circulate around the vessel, bringing out the rich red tone of the slip.

Fig 8

Early examples of fineline painting (phases I and II) are limited exclusively to stirrup vessels, and tend to favor a medallion layout with a single element, which may be repeated with slight variations around the vessel's surface. Related techniques appear in the earlier Salinar ceramics from the northern coast, but Moche artists developed the technique into a style unique in the Pre-Columbian Americas. The line used in phases I and II tends to be heavier than later examples and large areas of color fill are characteristic. Canons of representation were established in this period. Where a figure is present, it is rendered from a variety of perspectives: legs and arms in profile, torso and eye frontal. The head is typically rendered in profile except in certain specific figures where convention apparently demanded that it be frontal (fig. 8). Animals tend to be rendered from their most easily recognizable perspective. Quadrupeds (often with only one hind and foreleg visible) and fish are rendered in profile. Other animals such as octopuses, crabs, and spiders tend to be viewed from the top. Birds are rendered from top/bottom or profile, depending on type or perhaps context. While later fineline painting became more complex, these conventions tended to be respected-although with some innovation and variation-throughout the Moche period.

Phase III was a period of innovation. The use of molds was introduced for making the bodies of ceramic vessels, allowing greater numbers to be produced. Fineline painting scenes began to be rendered on dippers, single spouted bottles, and flaring bowls as well as stirrup vessels. The scenes depicted became more complex, and elements of perspective-or at least layering objects or figures in front/behind one another- were introduced. In some cases the torso begins to be turned in an effort to render it in profile. Elements that identify the locus of the scene (architecture, desert plants, sea creatures) are also included. Most interestingly, however, narrative sequences, rather than simple medallion representations, become more common. The Warrior Narrative is prominent among these. In scenes that appear on different vessels, warriors prepare for battle, fight opponents, defeat them, capture prisoners, make them bleed from the face, and parade them. In phases IV and V this sequence is combined into a single narrative which concludes with the ritual sacrifice of the prisoners.

Fig 9

Another theme that emerges in phase III is the various activities of a mythological figure dubbed Wrinkle Face, who is occasionally depicted with a companion known as Iguana. He is seen in combat with supernatural creatures, fishing, hunting, and engaged in a variety of other activities. The Wrinkle Face theme also continues and expands though phases IV and V.

Fig 10

Phase IV was in many respects the apex of fineline painting. Here the figures found their most evolved representation, narrative sequences are rendered completely, and the vocabulary of "locator elements" is expanded, as is the development of element layering to create depth. Compositions become more complex and include multiple registers and even spirals. The spout of the vessel is often decorated with geometric patterns, or sometimes even becomes a part of the figurative scene. Figures and other elements are often rendered with great delicacy. Dark infill becomes less important than the use of narrow line and the detail it allows. Reversed compositions with the images rendered in cream over a red ground, which have their roots in phase I, find their best execution in phase IV. Use of anthropomorphized animals and even objects is widespread, and includes such bizarre scenes as combat between anthropomorphized beans and deer (fig. 10).

Between phase IV and phase V, a major change occurred in the Moche region. It has been speculated that severe El Niño weather conditions followed by extreme drought may have severely weakened the agricultural capabilities of the culture, thus compromising the power of the elite classes. Whatever the cause, major changes are apparent in phase V, and strong influence from the Huari culture to the south begins to be seen in ceramic production, textiles, and other areas of material culture. Huari ceramic forms, such as the double-spouted bridge vessel, are introduced, and polychrome painting occurs for the first time. Themes in fineline depictions increasingly focus on the supernatural and on the sea. Death and burial themes are also frequent. Figures become stylized and often distorted. Fineline painting, which previously had been almost exclusively limited to the southern part of the Moche region, begins to be produced in the north as well, particularly at San José de Moro in the lower Jequetepeque Valley. Here, the complex layouts of phase IV evolve into lace-like horror vacui compositions where the entire surface of the vessel is covered with figurative motifs surrounded by ornate filler elements. The last traces of what can be identified as Moche culture faded away completely at the end of the ninth century, replaced by the Lambayeque in the north and the Chimú in the south.

Fig 11

Tens of thousands of Moche ceramics are held in institutional and private collections around the world. Of these, more than ninety-five percent were clandestinely excavated. The ceramics themselves are available to us for study and appreciation, but the information that they can convey is limited. The destruction of the archaeological context in which they lay for centuries has robbed us of the opportunity to penetrate this fascinating and historically significant culture more fully, and of understanding the true meaning of the gods, warriors, and stories that we can glimpse in these remarkable sculptures and paintings.