NAZCA, Peru 200 to 600 A.D. - Lot 114

NAZCA, Peru 200 to 600 A.D. Offering cup featuring a beautifully stylized contorted fish in the heart of the receptacle Polychrome terracotta, broken and glued in one place Diameter: 21.3 cm Provenance: Former De Perceval collection, Nice, built up in the 70s and 80s. The Nazca had a profound relationship of admiration and fascination with the marine world. For these peoples, water, the source of life and energy, was perceived as a sacred force. The sea, considered a nurturing mother, played a central role in the spirituality of coastal and Andean populations, becoming a veritable prolific and beneficent goddess. In Nazca society, marine animals played an essential role in the collective imagination. Depicted in ceramics, textiles and ritual objects, they symbolized survival, fertility and the balance of natural cycles. The fish, painted at the heart of this bowl, is a frequent motif in Nazca art, both for its food value and for its role in aquatic mythology. Nazca chiefs and priests used these bowls for ritual offerings, often as part of ceremonies invoking marine forces. These rituals were intended to ensure the abundance of marine resources, essential to the community. The bowl, decorated with a contorted fish, reflects the symbiosis between man, sea and cosmos in Nazca religious thought, where every natural element played a part in maintaining a universal order. Expert: Serge REYNES