DIRECTOR’S NOTE Pottery is one of the world’s most ancient and widespread re昀氀ect on devotional practices and interactions with technologies. While clay vessels can be found throughout divine power as well as occasionally arresting (perhaps the archaeological record, in certain times and places even perplexing or humorous) moments, such as when pottery took on an extraordinarily important role as a visitors 昀椀rst encounter vessels in the shape of seemingly primary bearer of meaning. In ancient Peru, for exam- violent root vegetables. ple, a region where writing as we understand it was not The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing will reopen in 2025 practiced, ceramic vessels became the expressive medium after an extensive reenvisioning, some 150 years after the par excellence, essential for both ritual practice and the 昀椀rst ancient Peruvian vessels entered The Met collection. exchange of ideas. The evocative works featured in this The Museum’s interest in this 昀椀eld waxed, waned, and Bulletin explore some 2,500 years of creative exploration then waxed again over the course of its history, ultimately in the Andes, taking a close look at remarkably imag- becoming, arguably, the 昀椀nest comprehensive collection inative works that served as conduits to worldly and of ceramics outside Peru. Hugo C. Ikehara-Tsukayama divine power. and Joanne Pillsbury were joined by their colleague Dawn This Bulletin was prepared in concert with Containing Kriss, Associate Conservator, Department of Objects the Divine, a display of forty sacred vessels from the Conservation, as authors of this Bulletin, and I am grateful Andes and Indonesia on The Met’s Great Hall Balcony to them for deepening our understanding of these works from May 25, 2022, to September 29, 2023. The tempo- not only in terms of their formal interest and as part of a rary closure of The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, where broader contextualized past, but also as objects that have these works normally reside, made possible this striking continued cultural relevance and meaning today. I also juxtaposition with other vessels from across Asia, expand- want to acknowledge and thank Alisa LaGamma, Ceil and ing and enhancing our understanding of the formal and Michael E. Pulitzer Curator in Charge of The Michael conceptual relationships of ritual objects. The installa- C. Rockefeller Wing, for her support of this project. tion and the accompanying Bulletin were informed in The quarterly Bulletin series is made possible in part by part by conversations and collaborations with colleagues the Lila Acheson Wallace Fund for The Metropolitan from around the globe, allowing us to reconsider this Museum of Art, established by the cofounder of area of The Met collection in new ways. Organized by Reader’s Digest. Maia Nuku, Evelyn A. J. Hall and John A. Friede Curator for Oceanic Art, Hugo C. Ikehara-Tsukayama, Senior Max Hollein Research Associate, and Joanne Pillsbury, Andrall E. Marina Kellen French Director Pearson Curator, all of The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Containing the Divine provides rich opportunities to 3