686 - Bull vessel, terracotta, painted in muted tones, Torito de Pucará, Peru

Bull vessel, terracotta, painted in muted tones, Torito de Pucará, Peru Terracotta, painted in muted tones, standing bull as a vessel, unmarked, Torito de Pucará, Peru, horns, applied twisted cords over the neck, sculpted rosettes and rings at the neck, applied tail, on the back a round filling opening with collar, the body with spirals, a trapezoidal field with painted pattern and circles in grey-brown on a cream-white ground, legs with dark stripes, hooves unpainted, in condition commensurate with age, flaking, 23x28x8 cm (HxWxD). 360-degree photo available on our website. The Torito de Pucará is the bull figure of fired clay from Checca Pupuja in the Puno region of southern Peru; it takes its name from the sales at Pucará station, completed in 1908, where the painter José Sabogal saw the ceramics in the 1920s. The figures are modelled by hand without moulds, fired and painted. Originally the bull with the opening on its back served as a vessel for chicha at the marking of cattle (Señalacuy) and was regarded as a protective object; placed in pairs on the roofs, it is said to bring luck and protection to the house. The traditional pieces are painted in two colours with a light slip; the multicoloured glazed versions were made later for tourism and export. In 2019 the Peruvian Ministry of Culture declared the Torito de Pucará part of the national cultural heritage. The Pucará bull is thus the best-known piece of Peruvian folk art and the ceramic bull its emblem.