Description

Nampeyo produced these bowls around 1893. The change from one style to another style of pottery is neither sudden nor complete; here, Nampeyo combines two pottery styles, the designs an inventive interpretation of Sikyatki iconography and the thick white slip characteristic of Polacca Polychrome. Both bowls include ecstatic bird forms morphing into prayers and plants. Nampeyo used expanding and contracting forms to develop volume and to help move the viewer’s eye across her painted surfaces. Pot NA1272b includes thick-lined triangular forms adapted from circa 1300 San Bernardo wares, the precursor to Sikyatki pottery. Both bowls were formerly in the collection of Lucy Davidson Peabody, who was an early champion of the American Southwest Indigenous cultures and was instrumental in establishing Mesa Verde National Park.

Also see NA0782 or learn more here.