Vase aztèque aux quatre visages is a mesmerising piece in Picasso’s ceramic production, both in the intriguing repetition of curvilinear forms throughout the piece and in the fascinating shape of this vessel, which is composed of numerous breathtaking components and layers. Picasso’s characteristic repetition of stripes and dots across the handle of the work and along its base, create a kinetic, spinning motion in the piece and imbue the ceramic with a spiritual aura.

Picasso often drew on antiquity and ancient civilisations for the forms of his ceramics, revitalising these shapes and reimagining the possibilities of their surfaces. The shape of this vase harks back to the Moche ‘portrait vessels’ of ancient Peruvian civilisations: often dedicated to an individual in a community and naturalistically capturing their facial traits along the curved base. Picasso draws on this anthropomorphic design through the fascinating handle at the top of the vessel often referred to as a ‘stirrup spout’ but departs from traditional Moche vases by incorporating more than one portrait in the work in his recognisably modern and abstract style. Four different faces are masterfully portrayed around the curved surface, each displaying different facial expressions with an economy of thick brushstrokes and partial engraving to accentuate these marks.

The object’s enchanting quality is reinforced by the piercing eyes of the four faces, each beckoning the viewer to explore the spellbinding rippling lines across the work’s handle and crown of the face’s head. The blue, grey and white hues of the engobe equally evoke natural imagery of the sky’s atmosphere. The ceramic becomes an ode to circular and semi-circular forms, encompassing an extensive language of these shapes in both the curves along many of the vessel’s axes and in the continuous dotted pattern across the piece.