|
 |
Selections from the Bernard & Edith Lewin Collection
Unique Peruvian Additions to the Museum’s Permanent Collection Currently on display in the Peter Rodríguez Permanent Collection Gallery until September 17 are selections from the Museum’s Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection, including two exquisite examples of the unique Nazca ceramic tradition of Peru. The Nazca culture thrived from approximately 200 B.C.E. (before the common era) to 600 C.E. (of the common era) in the arid coastal plain of southern Peru. Given their desert environment, their relationship to water and the harsh natural forces were of utmost importance to the Nazca. They are best known for the enigmatic Nazca Lines, geoglyphs located over several acres of the Peruvian desert. These large images carved into the earth range from a human figure over 100-feet long to a stylized heron which is approximately 900-feet long. Recent investigations have linked the Nazca Lines with religious shrines to mountain deities and the ritual acquisition of water. Many of the images found in the three hundred known geoglyphs are also portrayed in Nazca ceramics and textiles. Nazca pottery reveals the greatest stylistic complexity of the early Peruvian ceramic traditions. Though contemporaries of the Moche of northern Peru and the Maya of southern Mexico and Central America, Nazca potters created much finer ceramics with polished surfaces. They utilized eleven basic colors which they blended into more than a hundred shades. The work of Nazca potters is also characterized by their tendency to paint all available space, incorporating realistic with anthropomorphic and half-animal figures associated with fertility and water deities. Each of the bowls in the Lewin Collection depicts a different motif. Of the two on display in the Permanent Collection Gallery, one depicts a human face geometrically rendered in browns, reds and white, accented by a beautifully molded nose on the front of the bowl (shown above). In contrast, the second bowl (shown below) depicts a stylized water figure wrapping itself around the vessel. In its shape and design, this more rounded bowl can be fully admired from all angles. In their rich imagery and ceramic techniques, both bowls are significant additions to the Museum’s growing Peruvian collection. We offer special acknowledgement to Bernard Lewin and his late wife Edith for this generous and significant donation to The Mexican Museum Permanent Collection. Tere Romo Curator of Exhibitions
|
|
