Vessel with bird-shaped decoration, Aztec culture, 13th-15th centuries

Vessel with bird-shaped decoration, Aztec culture, 13th-15th centuries.
Terracotta.
Provenance: private collection in Paris. Acquired on the art market in the 1980s.
In good state of preservation.
Measurements: 20 cm (length).

This container or bowl of low height has the representation in round bulk of a bird. It is a sculpture of synthesized features. Three horizontal bands are attached to the mouth on the outside to act as handles.
The Aztec or Mexica Empire developed in the central zone of Mesoamerica during the Late Postclassic period, before the Spanish conquest. It came to an end on August 13, 1521, when the Spanish, allied with the Tlaxcaltecs, Totonacs and other peoples, defeated the Mexica resistance in Tenochtitlan. It was one of the largest and most important empires in pre-Columbian America, and was forged in only two hundred years by a nomadic tribe.