Huaco (pottery) - Variety of Styles and Colors

Variety of Styles and Colors

The bridge handles are characteristic of some cultures; some used many colors, while others used black and dull red or few colors. Inca Empire adopted all sorts of shapes, styles and qualities. The term "huaco" was reserved for any copies not reserved for daily use but the luxury or ritual.

Normally these ceramic pieces are associated with notable features. Sculptured figurines depict complex, stylized volumes, including cultural scenes, buildings, and naturalistic volumes such as portrait ceramics representing human faces (for example, the Moche Portrait Ceramic) or body parts by way of votive offering, erotica, tools, various fruits and foods, animals, etc.

When the pieces are sculptural ceramics, huacos are characterized by pictorial richness. There are many kinds of pots and containers covered with gaudy polychrome motifs, usually anthropomorphic representations of animals or mythological, erotica, etc. Two-toned Moche pottery is characterized by complex painted scenes detailing a narrative level. Examples of erotic huacos (Spanish: huacos eróticos), make the Moche's 800-year period (c. 200 BC to c. 600 AD) the longest unbroken erotic ceramics tradition in the world, unique in the history of mankind. In the 1570s during the Spanish conquest of Peru, Viceroy Francisco de Toledo and his clerical advisers worked to destroy many erotic huacos, though some extant artifacts have survived.

In both cases the huaco is associated with ceramic complexity (in its volume or decoration) and not with regular use as a container on account of its physical dimensions. The slender Incan vessels known as aryballos, even opulently created examples, are not usually considered huacos since their utilitarian character is too pronounced.