Stirrup-spout vessel with fine-line fishing scene,

A.D. 400–550

This well-burnished stirrup-spout vessel presents a richly-detailed fishing scene, repeated on the vessel's two sides in the distinctly Mochica style of red-brown 'fine-line' painting on a cream ground. The scene centers on a stylized hunter-fisherman. He wears a simple tunic, wristbands, and possibly boots. Serpent iconography adorns his diadem, earring, and the ends of his belt. Body paint is indicated on the lower legs. The figure holds a rope, coiled in his left hand, while the other end is attached to a fish, suggesting a fishing line. This figure is surrounded by a host of marine animals, easily identifiable thanks to a fair degree of naturalism and standard diagnostic representational conventions. The hooked fish is a Bonito. Also present are a hermit crab (or possibly a squid), a sea lion, tiny fish likely representing anchovies, and a Spotted Snake Eel. A single sea bird, probably a cormorant, appears at the top of the vessel body, breaking the otherwise consistent two-sided mirror composition. Small unidentified donut-shaped motifs fill other gaps in the composition, producing a consistent overall design density, as became common in the later phases of the fine-line ceramic tradition. Two other vessels are known with nearly identical scenes (one in the British Museum and the other in a private collection). Details of figural treatment, such as a distinctive transition from a fleshy calf to a sharp point at the back of the knee on the human figures, led Christopher Donnan and to argue the two were made by the same artist, dubbed the London Painter after the British Museum example ("Moche Fineline Painting: Its Evolution and its Artists," 1992). Given the strong similarities in these same details, as well as the general theme and composition, this vessel too may be attributed to the London Painter.