Bowl Depicting Serpentine Being Wearing a Feline Mask c. 180 - 500

This small bowl, now held at the Art Institute of Chicago, was created by the Nazca people of ancient Peru, celebrated for their pottery and textiles. The painted decoration shows a serpentine being wearing a feline mask. In Nazca culture, feline and serpentine motifs were powerful symbols often associated with agricultural fertility and spiritual power. The image suggests the permeability of human, animal, and supernatural worlds. What does it mean to imagine oneself as part animal? How might that change your understanding of your place in the world? This bowl invites us to reflect on the fluid boundaries between identities. It reminds us that our understanding of ourselves is deeply entwined with the natural and spiritual realms.