Bowl with Resist Design

Unknown

7th–10th century · Ceramic, pigment · Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

Formed in the organic shape of a large leaf, or perhaps in the shape of a sliced guanábana fruit, this shallow bowl with a slightly inverted rim contains a slip-painted resist design on its interior. The potter used a fine paste as visible in the losses on the rim of the vessel. The design on the interior features solid rectilinear shapes and lines of equal thickness forming right angles. Pottery traditions in the Caribbean existed as early as 500 B.C., and this bowl comes from a transitional phase between what are known as Saladoid and Ostionoid cultures. These agricultural societies were the precursor to the Taíno civilizations that expanded throughout the Greater Antilles after about 1000 A.D.

Artist

Unknown

Date

7th–10th century

Medium

Ceramic, pigment

Culture

Proto-Taíno (Early Ostionoid)

Department

Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

Credit line

Gift of Vincent P. Fay and Margaret Fay, 2020