Pre Hispanic Ceramic art

Reproduction of pre Hispanic ceramic art. These pieces belong to a widely extended collection that has been faithfully copied from their originals. They are hand crafted by applying the same techniques and the same natural materials used by ancient potters in its elaboration and decoration. Culinary vessels, jars, vases and plates, trace the faces and customs of the past. They become symbols of history. Alcarrazas and urns tells us stories of ancient peoples, who used them and left in them their prints forever. Redeemed from the past, these exotic pieces serve the purpose of modern or ancient decoration. They stand on their own as protagonists in a place of honor and create spectacular effects. They integrate themselves all those corners we build for our contentment.

To the variety of indigenous tribes that inhabited Columbian territory before the Spaniards arriving and in the years of the conquest, using of pottery was common. As a direct fruit of the hand and clay, pottery arise when the nomad tribe, tired of going behind the flock and gathering fruits, established sedentary and developed agriculture, animal tame and the division of work. Sedentary life allows to conserve clay pot dried by the sun then to experiment its transformation with fire, improving its manufacture and superficial decoration. This labor concerns to the woman, who is converted in potter responsible of creating the offering, perpetuation of personages and lovely decorator of domestic vessels and ceremonials; also to model the living image of the wizard, the cacique, and to materialize their gods. Her wise hands design the magic of sacred animals to invite rains that feed the earth and makes favorable hunting; she represents all in clay: her building, feelings, illnesses, and fabricate musical instruments. Two thousand years elapsed, and little towns were grouped to dominate huge territories. In the north of Colombia, at the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Taironas were living. Chimilas and Sinúes were in the caribe coast; Quimbayas were in the south-west and in the present coffee plantation regions, which vicinity with Panches, Tolimas and Calimas of center-west facilitated the interchange with them, and Muiscas and Guanes of the center and north-east of the country, of foods for emeralds, salt and cotton. In the present department of Nariño, the settlements of Nariños and Tumacos standed out.

Sacred animals were usually represented in the shape of toads or frogs whose venom was used in the preparation of spurs and arrows for war or hunting.; versify of statues used as ritual offerings have been found in tombs. They represent shamans, caciques, warriors and scenes from daily life. Ritually mutilated heads can also be found as part of some figures.
Birds and reptiles were also used in association to the dominion of the air and the earth. Monkeys and frogs were a symbol of fertility

Plates were maybe the most important recipients elaborated by indigenous groups. They pictured a widespread variety of magical animals, and hunting and playing scenes on them.
They designed a remarkable large number of geometric forms in which optic phenomenon provides movement to composition. Figures seem to come out magically after eating or drinking from plates.
Seals and rollers were put on plant pigments and then used for body painting.
• This technique was also used on beautiful fabrics also serving as trading products.

Vases. They created candid containers of domestic use, which were decorated with great mastery due to their close relation with nature and their cosmogony universe. Outstanding humanlike figures are present in some vases. These figures represent a man in a crouching or squatting position as if he was carrying a big basket on his back. It tells the story of position carriers who traded with peoples from distant regions. Portraits of daily life and characterization of male and female roles are with no doubt shaped in pre-Columbian pottery. It is well known from these portraits that woman wore long colorful skirts. Men wore small loin clothing along with adornments around the arms, legs and on the face. A great diversity of statues used as ritual offerings have been found in tombs. Water jars, Large size vessels were used to store liquid. They were designed in the way of an ewer or mucura provided with globular body, tubular neck and side handle to be carried on shoulder.
Jugs. They represent shamans, caciques, warriors and scenes from daily life. Ritually mutilated heads can also be found as part of some figures. Sacred animals were usually represented in the shape of toads or frogs whose venom was used in the preparation of spurs and arrows for war or hunting. Birds and reptiles were also used in association to the dominion or the air and the earth. Monkeys and frogs were a symbol of fertility.
A close vessel provided with two spillways and handle which was widely used to carry a portion of chicha, a sacred beverage from Indian corn. Priest, shams, animal like figures and sacred fruits serve the purpose of decoration.
Burial Urns, large vessels had two functions, they were used either as containers to preserve beverages before the death of their possessors or to keep their osseous remainders after death. This is precisely the reason why they are called burial urns.
Masks, express the idea of transformation better then any other ritual object. They have a supernatural force compelling those who see it to turn its bearer. At the same time masks see others and themselves in another dimension. This metamorphosis also occurred when masks were used at the time of death making evident the opposition between opposite but complementary forces (life and death). Ancient peoples left us mortuary masks used in initiation rites, in dancing or healing ceremonies by the shamans and in the characterization of ancestors who existed originally in the shape of animals and were then transformed into human beings. Finally, masks served to provide men with a variety of faces allowing them to transform themselves.
Perhaps the earliest use of masks was in connection with hunting. Disguise masks were seemingly used in the early Stone Age in stalking prey and later to house the slain animal's spirit in the hope of placating it. Since agricultural societies first appeared in prehistory, the mask has been widely used for fertility rituals. Throughout contemporary Europe and Latin America, masks are associated with folk festivals, especially those generated by seasonal changes or marking the beginning and end of the year. Masks have been used almost universally to represent characters in theatrical performances. Theatrical performances are a visual literature of a transient, momentary kind. It is most impressive because it can be seen as a reality; it expends itself by its very revelation. The mask participates as a more enduring element, since its form is physical.
In the 20th century, with the breaking down of primitive and folk cultures, the mask has increasingly become a decorative object, although it has long been used in art as an ornamental device. The collecting of old masks has been a part of the current interest in so-called primitive and folk arts.