Moche Portrait Vessel Depicting Ai Apaec

Fangs, a furrowed brow and ears the size of small plates.

This Moche portrait vessel depicting Ai Apaec comes from Peru and dates to 100 – 800 CE, in terra cotta. Moche potters of the north coast modeled faces in clay with striking individuality, and vessels were placed in burials and used in ceremony. Ai Apaec is the name often given to their fanged deity, though scholars debate his identity. The globular body is the head itself, burnished red-orange, with a wide opening at the crown. Heavy brows sit above pale, outlined eyes. Pale slip picks out the ears and the bared, fanged mouth. It stands 5.5 inches high.

More than a thousand years on, the expression has lost nothing.