Polychrome Jar

This jar, made between 1840 and 1860, stands at the beginning of a major rebirth of the Pueblo ceramic tradition after some 250 years of diminished innovation when the Pueblo world was part of the Spanish empire. Bold geometric motifs flow around the vessel’s surface in a seemingly random progression; however, the unknown artist duplicated the design on both sides, indicating that the decoration was carefully planned. Prominent among the motifs are blunt-end “fingers,” heart-shaped patterns, large spirals, and triangular elements. The artistic renewal starting in the mid-19th century soon included pottery from nearby Zuñi, and subsequently spread to other pueblos along the Rio Grande to the east and the Hopi mesas to the west. By the 1930s, the most creative impulses of this artistic movement were on the wane, although vessels of remarkable accomplishment continued to be made into the 20th century.