# Jaguar Head Kero

- By: Inca (Viceroyalty of Peru (probably Peru or Bolivia))
- Date: 1600–1800
- Medium: Wood and mopa-mopa resin
- Classification: Vessel
- Dimensions: 21.2 × 15.3 × 18.5 cm (8 3/8 × 6 × 7 1/4 in.)
- Culture: Peru, Viceroyalty of
- Credit line: Arts of the Americas Discretionary Fund
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/263126)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/8fb8df54-d87d-cd94-6695-f179682b1b10/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

During the Inca Empire, wooden kero drinking cups were only decorated with geometric designs. But after the Spanish invasion, the Inca royal court retreated to lower elevations in the Amazonian jungle, a place they called Vilcabamba. Likely in response to the introduction of European heraldry featuring lions and building on representations of felines by their Andean predecessors, Inca makers created new keros shaped like feline heads. Rather than depicting highland pumas, however, such keros are spotted like Amazonian jaguars.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0