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The Andean cultures gave us a fountain of information about their way of life and spiritual beliefs through their art objects. Almost all of the ancient American cultures achieved a significant level of the artistic techniques which they applied in their textile, architecture and pottery. The art objects of the Nazca culture represent one of the most interesting artifacts among the ancient Andean nations.
The aim of this essay is to describe the work of art of the Nazca culture as well as to interpret it in context of its historic value.
The object of the research is the ceramic vessel from Nazca culture.
Before taking a closer look at the object of the research, it is necessary to give a brief introduction to the history of the Nazca culture. The historic period of the Nazca culture relates to the time prior to the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus and the arrival of Spanish conquistadors in the South America in the Middle Ages. It is claimed that the period of this culture traces back to 100 B.C. – A.D. 650. The Nazca people inhabited the territory of modern Peru. In spite of the fact that these Andean people did not build a civilization like Incas and Aztecs did, their culture achieved a substantial level of development which is proved by the inventions they created to organize their living in the difficult for survival area. In particular, a very dry climate made the agriculture almost impossible there.
However, the Nazca people developed the aqueducts which gave the water to their fields. It should be emphasized that the agriculture played a central role in the development of the Nazca culture influencing not only their economy but also religious beliefs and art. Carolyn Dean mentions in her article The Trouble with Art that “historically, art, like writing, the use of the wheel, and monotheistic religion, has been used to gauge how high or low on the evolutionary ladder of culture its producers perched” (Dean 30). The pottery and textile were the most developed spheres of art in the Nazca culture.
All of the objects of Nazca culture displayed in the museum prove the fact that the agricultural traditions served as the source of inspiration for the ancient Nazca artists. Among the commonalities in the displayed artifacts of pottery we noticed the following ones: the depiction of plants, animals, birds and fishes; the usage of various colors in the same vessel; the depiction of heads, which were undoubtedly spiritual symbols in the Nazca’s religious beliefs. Patrick Carmichael in his work The Life from Death Continuum in Nazca Imaginary mentions that the Harvester motif was accompanied by the ideas of plant fertility and its supernatural symbolism (Carmichael 82).
If you take a look at the picture, you can see the vessel in the centre among many other ceramic objects of the Nazca culture. The vessel relates to the double spout and bridge pottery artifacts which were frequently found during the archeological digs in Peru. Such form of the vessel represents one of the key peculiarities of the Nazca ceramic art. As regards the application of the vessel, it was used for the water storage and drinking.
However, the primary function of such kind of vessels was ritual and it was not used in the day to day activities. Carmichael said that the art objects and the iconography of the Nazca culture were based on “the concept of life flowing through death” in which the Nazca people believed (Carmichael 81). He also explained that this concept meant that the death gave rise to life (Carmichael 81). Perhaps, the double spot and bridge form of the vessel can be explained by the concept of dual oppositions which was popular in the ancient Andean cultures. Townsend says that this concept underlied the views of the ancient Andean people on cosmos organization (Townsend 274).
Turning back to the artistic techniques applied in the vessel, we can say that the Nazca people used more advanced methods in coloring the pottery than other Andean cultures. In particular, they used a slip of various colors on the surface of the object to make it brighter and richer. Moreover, the glaze was applied to depict the lines of the images. As a result, the vessel obtained a polychrome effect which made it outstanding in comparison with the ceramic objects of other ancient cultures. Overall, the main colors used in the vessel include brown, dark green and white.
As you can see, the birds are depicted on the vessel. Their images represent the classic examples of the primitive art along with such its common features as the simplification of forms and the hypertrophy in the sizes of certain parts of the image. The image of the birds consists of four main parts: the main body, the long zigzag neck, the long beak, and the legs. The beaks of the birds depicted on the vessel are out of proportion to their body.
The same thing can be said about the birds’ necks. The comb on the top of the bird’s body makes it looks fantastic to some extent but, probably, the ancient artists tried to depict the feather in such a way. If you take a look at the eye of the bird, you can see that it is also hypertrophied in size but it is rather colorful encompassing two tones of green and a black color in itself. Against a white background of the bird’s body the eye stands out. The legs and the beaks are depicted in the terracotta.
As it was already mentioned, the images of the elements of nature including birds were broadly used in the pottery of the ancient Nazca people. The potters often depicted pelicans, humming birds and others in their works. Certainly, taking a look at the birds in the vessel, it is difficult to say which kind of birds they represent. Presumably, they can be pelicans. The birds in the symbolism of the Nazca culture support their spiritual belief in the transition of the man to another cycle of life which they imagined as its material level which is safe from natural disasters. In general, it was believed by the Nazca people that the life consists of two cycles, the cycle of Consciousness and the cycle of Correction.
This spiritual concept comprised not only the individual lives but also the life of mankind itself. The transition from one cycle to another meant the transition from Past to the Future. The long beaks of the birds symbolize the duration of the Correction cycle. In the historic context this belief can be explained by the nature of the area inhabited by the Nazca people as its conditions did not provide the safety of living and the threats of natural disasters always existed.
It should be said that the historians consider namely the huge flooding as the reason of the fall of the Nazca culture. Besides, the historians agree in opinion that the flooding was provoked by the systematic disafforestation of the territory and a resulting damage of the natural relief.
To summarize all above mentioned it should be said that the vessel from the Nazca culture which we saw in the museum represents the classic example of the ceramic pottery art of this ancient Andean nation. Its careful analysis allowed us to mark out its following features: the polychrome effect achieved by the application of a colorful slip, the prevalence of the deep and bright colors of brown, green and white, the clearly depicted lines of the birds images, and last but not least, the special double spout and bridge form of the vessel.
In addition, the artistic traditions of the Nazca people were closely connected to their religious beliefs and the myths. In particular, the birds, which we can see in the studied vessel, reflect their belief in the life cycles. Overall, the objects of the ancient Andean ceramic pottery are the invaluable artifacts of the culture and art of the nations inhabited the area of modern Peru in the ancient times. They provide us with the important insight into the way of life of the ancient Andean cultures making us aware of the nations which do not exist anymore on the planet.
Works Cited
Carmichael, Patrick. «The Life from Death Continuum in Nazca Imaginary.” Andean Past. Riverside: University of California, 1994. 81-90. Print.
Carolyn Dean. “The Trouble with Art.” Art Journal 65.2 (2006): 25-32. Print.
Townsend, Richard F. The Ancient American Art from Sacred Landscapes , Munich: Prestel Verlag, 1992. Print.
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