Painted Qero Cups from the Inka and Colonial Periods in Peru: An Analytical Study of Pigments and Media

Abstract

ABSTRACTQero cups, made from wood, ceramics and precious metals, have been used for millennia in the Andean region for ritual consumption of maize beer. From the cusp of the Inka-Colonial period, painted decoration became more common on qero cups. Most of the painted decoration actually consists of thin layers of a pigmented rubbery material that was cut and inlaid into shallow carved cavities in the wood substrate. For this project, 312 paint samples from 53 qerocups in collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, National Museum of the American Indian/Smithsonian Institution, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and American Museum of Natural History were analyzed. The study of paints is part of larger study of the technology of over 150 qero cups from these four collections. Samples from seven qeros in Peruvian collections have also been analyzed. Nearly two dozen pigments have been identified, including mineral, synthetic inorganic compounds, and natural dyestuffs. The binder consisted of an unusual natural resin (commonly called ‘mopa mopa’) usually mixed with a nondrying or semidrying oil. This resin, which was used at least locally during the pre-Inka period and continued to be used through the Colonial period and later, came from a tree that grows in the montana of southwest Colombia, a region that was part of the northernmost extension of the Inka empire.