1969.2.McD Stirrup-spout vessel deer hunting (Peru, Moche)

The Moche culture dominated the north coast of Peru from the first to the eighth century CE. At its peak, about 400 CE, the Moche realm encompassed ten contiguous river valleys. Moche artists were sophisticated metallurgists in gold, silver, and bronze, and their prolific ceramic tradition often made use of molds. Moche potters excelled at modeling, which they used to produce naturalistic portrait heads, plants, animals, and figural compositions, and they were adept painters. This vessel combines these skills in treating an important Moche theme, the deer hunt. The modeled three-dimensional forms of hunter and deer complement the delicately painted scene that covers the vessel. Seen amid the lacy branches of acacia trees, three hunters in elaborate garb have trapped three deer in a net and have speared another. Long-tailed, spotted dogs in the painted scene seem to attack the modeled deer that leaps above them.

Excerpt from 

Bonnie Pitman, ed., "Stirrup-spout vessel with deer hunting scenes (1969.2.McD)," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 26.

Moche: AAT: 300017287

Moche (river): TGN: 7016595

Peru (nation): TGN: 1000056

ceramic (material): AAT: 300235507

clay: AAT: 300010439

resin (organic material): AAT: 300012882

bridge spouts: AAT: 300203289

modeling (forming): AAT: 300053130

coiling (pottery technique): AAT: 300053903

firing (technique): AAT: 300053887

fine-line painting (pottery decorating techniques): DMA

Early Intermediate period (Pre-Columbian Andean styles and periods): AAT: 300017280

vessels (containers): AAT: 300193015

ritual vessels: AAT: 300265801

stirrup-spout vessel (containers): DMA

hunts (event/activity): AAT: 300386094

hunters (people): AAT: 300025619

deer: AAT: 300250308

dog: AAT: 300250130

acacia tree (gum tree/senegalia): AAT: 300389683

Until 1969: Edward Shaw, Buenos Aires, Argentina [1]

From 1969: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., purchased from the above [1], [2], [3]

[1] The main source for this provenance is Acquisition Record (dated March 4, 1969, copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records Object File). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.

[2] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.

[3] Works of art given or purchased by The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., a non-profit organization, are placed in the custody of the DMA for the purpose of public display on the premises of the Museum or in other recognized art galleries or museum. The title to all works of art purchased (or otherwise acquired) by the McDermott Art Fund remains with the Fund.

253364780: UMO. [Caption] Gum Acacia tree (Senegalia senegal). Source: Neha.Vindhya (own work), Wikimedia Commons, accessed: April 27, 2015, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senegalia_senegal#/media/File:Khair.JPG.

Apply to objects where number equals 1969.2.McD