Double-bodied Jar250–500

On view:

Geffen Galleries

No image

Title: Double-bodied Jar
Culture: Greater Coclé
Place Made: Panama, Los Santos Province, Tonosí, El Indio Phase
Date Made: 250–500
Style: Tonosi, El Indio phase
Medium: Slip-painted earthenware
Dimensions: 11 × 9 in. (27.94 × 22.86 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Alan Grinnell and Feelie Lee
Accession Number: M.2024.204.4
Classification: Furnishings
Collecting Area: Art of the Ancient Americas
Curatorial Notes: Double-bodied vessels (doble cuerpos) are perhaps the most iconic and showy of Tonosí-style ceramics. This example features a slightly flattened chamber at the bottom and a more spherical one on top, and its rounded base indicates that it was not designed to stand upright on its own. Vessels of this type have been found in infant burials, but the reason for such a placement is unknown. The decoration, painted in red and black on a bright white ground, is mirrored on the upper and lower chambers. What the artist intended to depict is unclear—possibly frogs viewed from above, or very stylized standing figures.

Tonosí-style ceramics are primarily associated with the southern tip of the Azuero Peninsula. As here, designs are typically repeated on the front and back, and often in panels enclosed by circumferential bands at the top and bottom.

On view:

Geffen Galleries

No image

Title: Double-bodied Jar
Culture: Greater Coclé
Place Made: Panama, Los Santos Province, Tonosí, El Indio Phase
Date Made: 250–500
Style: Tonosi, El Indio phase
Medium: Slip-painted earthenware
Dimensions: 11 × 9 in. (27.94 × 22.86 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Alan Grinnell and Feelie Lee
Accession Number: M.2024.204.4
Classification: Furnishings
Collecting Area: Art of the Ancient Americas
Curatorial Notes: Double-bodied vessels (doble cuerpos) are perhaps the most iconic and showy of Tonosí-style ceramics. This example features a slightly flattened chamber at the bottom and a more spherical one on top, and its rounded base indicates that it was not designed to stand upright on its own. Vessels of this type have been found in infant burials, but the reason for such a placement is unknown. The decoration, painted in red and black on a bright white ground, is mirrored on the upper and lower chambers. What the artist intended to depict is unclear—possibly frogs viewed from above, or very stylized standing figures.

Tonosí-style ceramics are primarily associated with the southern tip of the Azuero Peninsula. As here, designs are typically repeated on the front and back, and often in panels enclosed by circumferential bands at the top and bottom.