Andean Arts

CUPISNIQUE

We use the name Cupisnique to refer to a style of architectural sculpture and ceramics in the Peruvian North Coast. This includes the site of Caballo Muerto, in the Moche Valley, where there is a structure called Huaca de los Reyes. The friezes at Huaca de los Reyes represent massive heads with threatening features as well as more stylized depictions of agnathic faces (without lower jaws) with upturned eyes, the latter designed using bands of similar widths. The scale of some of these representations is so large that they must have been visible from quite a distance away, making an impression on visitors to this site.

Cupisnique ceramics are incised, burnished, and reduction fired. A typical Cupisnique bottle has a stirrup spout and a rounded chamber, but modeled or sculptural chambers are common as well. Three-dimensional and sculptural modeling coexist with smaller incised designs. Stirrup spouts have two curved tube-like forms that connect the vessel chamber to a single spout, having the curved portions resemble a stirrup, hence the name.

The iconography of Cupisnique ceramic vessels range from representations of figures in different poses, as well as fruits, animals, and incised designs of heads and agnathic faces, much like those on the Huaca de los Reyes friezes. There are composite figures that are represented in the art works as well. These figures, which often combine anthropomorphic and zoomorphic features, suggest that an element of transformation was an important aspect of Cupisnique ceremonies.

The vessel seen here is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. On one side of the the vessel there is a feline that is surrounded with stepped designs and representations of cacti. The cacti resemble the San Pedro cactus, a cactus still used today by Andean curanderos, or folk healers, due to its psychoactive properties. Felines in Cupisnique art seem to be closely associated to the properties attributed to the San Pedro cactus and their representation with this cactus suggests a transformative process linked to its concumption.

Cupisnique stone cups and plates also depict composite beings that combine anthropomorphic and zoomorphic traits (felines and birds, primarily).  Some of these beings also display arachnid traits and are related to trophy head iconography (they either hold trophy heads in one hand or have bodies that are filled with disembodied heads).

The stone plate seen here is in the collection of Dumbarton Oaks. The space is filled by a composite creature with a mostly anthropomorphic head, and a human arm on one side of its body (on the left side of this photograph). The creature is holding a trophy head by the hair with this human arm. The rest of the body seems to resemble a gourd, but it is divided into sections by a grid-like design, with each of these sections holding an individual disembodied human head in profile view. These heads have their eyes closed, much like the trophy head held by the creature, suggesting that these, too, are decapitated heads. Looking at the other “limbs” that surround this creature’s body, it is important to note that there are four long extensions on the opposite side of the body (to the right on the photo seen here). Having four “legs” on on one side suggests that this could be a reference to the body of a spider. As we look closely at this composite creature’s head, we can see that the creature has an upturned eye and a human nose. There is a curled motif above the nose, however. This curved design could be a reference to the consumption of hallucinogenic snuff, the process of which results in the excessive production of mucus. Heads of composite creatures with depictions of mucus can also be observed at the site of Chavin de Huantar in the northern highlands of Peru. These are all motifs and images that indicate the importance of psychoactive substances in ancient Andean ritual practices, and here, we see that these references are also paired with the representation of human sacrifice.