Nazca Ceramics: colored sculpture

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In the department of Ida, between the years 100 C.E. and 400 C.E., the Nazca culture developed on the Peruvian coast. The Nazca civilization was small and comprised of fishers who were descendants of the ancient Paracas of the Chincha Valley. Among the most outstanding of their arts, ceramics is the most well-known today.

The Nazca artisans stood out from the rest of the pre-Incan cultures by the way they decorated their ceramic pottery. Since, unlike the Mochica culture, they didn’t concentrate on the sculptural forms of their vases but rather on the graphics they would paint on them and on the colors of these graphics. The form of their vases and jugs was diverse, the most typical being the globular jug with two spouts and a bridge handle.

Color Techniques

Owing to their great artistic ability, the Nazcas used a great variety of colors. Their main palate consisted of 11 basic colors and 190 shades, which ranged from white to brown, yellow and violet. However, they always refused to use blue and green, because these represented the sea, the origin of the gods.

In order to coat the pigments onto their ceramics, the artisans painted the pieces before putting them in the oven. This protected the color and made it adhere completely to the piece, allowing the color to last for a much longer time.

Motives

The themes that the artists represented were related to their daily lives, including mythological elements that symbolized their worldview, transforming ordinary themes into complex designs of abstract animals. The animals, human figures, and geometric elements were emphasized.

Fear of the Empty

The richness of Nazca ceramics, which reached its peak around the year 600 C.E., is characterized by a unique aspect. The artists went through a lot of trouble to make sure that no space went undecorated, and so they would increase the size of the central figure and would repaint it across the surface of the piece. The favorite animals to use were the centipede and mythological monsters with numerous tongues.

For the Nazca, empty space represented the absence of the gods, and it is therefore believed that the excess of decoration was caused by religious reasons more than aesthetic reasons.

Images: Fotos de Culturas, Aztlan virtual, Pomalaza

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