Big-Eared Brown Bat Vessel
This bat, perhaps shown opening its wings before taking flight, illustrates Moche artists’ keen interest in realism and in capturing activity at its peak. Moche bat symbolism may be linked to the animal’s paradoxical traits—for instance, bats fly but have fur rather than feathers. Such traits may have caused the Moche to link bats with transitional states, such as the passage between life and death. The vessel depicts a member of the Histiotus mochica species, a big-eared brown bat that researchers described in 2021 and, due to this vessel, named in honor of the Moche, also known as the Moc...
Details
- Palette
-
Select a color to find related artworks.
- Medium
- ceramic, slip
- Dimensions
- overall: height 0.184 m, width 0.177 m, depth 0.158 m
- Department
- Art of the Americas
- Holding institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Image provider
- cleveland-museum-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- John L. Severance Fund
Art Genome Taxonomy
8 tags
Subject Matter
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Animals Both · 99%
The object clearly represents a bat with large ears or wings, a mammalian face, limbs, claws, and an open mouth; the museum identifies it as a big-eared brown bat vessel.
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Zoomorphism Visual · 98%
A complete animal form is combined with a ceramic vessel, making the object an example of animal representation through a functional vessel form.
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Movement Both · 87%
The wings or ears extend outward in a pose that suggests movement or imminent flight; the museum describes the bat as perhaps opening its wings before taking flight.
Visual Qualities
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Symmetrical Visual · 96%
The bat is presented frontally with a strong central axis and broadly mirrored ears or wings, facial features, limbs, and feet.
Time Periods
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Ancient Art Metadata · 88%
The museum dates the vessel to 200–850 CE, a period broadly covered by the catalog’s ancient-art category.
Geographic Regions
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Andes Region Art Metadata · 99%
The museum gives the place of origin as the Central Andes, North Coast, associated with the Moche people.
Materials
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Ceramic Metadata · 99%
The museum identifies the medium as ceramic with slip, and the image shows a modeled, fired-looking ceramic surface.
Tableware, Vessels, and Objects
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Vessel Both · 99%
A clearly visible cylindrical neck and circular opening rise behind the bat’s head, and the museum title identifies the object as a vessel.
Source & rights
Unknown artist. Big-Eared Brown Bat Vessel. Cleveland Museum of Art.