The Paracas culture had fine pottery and finer textiles. Their Nazca descendants reversed this, their finest artistic creativity being reserved for pottery, on which they depicted many of the motifs familiar from Paracas textiles.
Among these was a creature clearly derived from the beast, part feline, part human, that was the principal motif in Paracas art. Frequently this creature is associated with plant motifs: it may hold a plant between its paws or vegetation may sprout from its head. It is also often associated with severed heads. Other pots are models of these severed trophy heads, their dead lips pinned together.
Many other motifs grace the pottery, from realistic paintings or models of people or animals to more abstract representations of plants and composite beasts.
Paracas ceramics were decorated with resin paint after firing; the more sophisticated Nazca pottery was painted with mineral-based slips before firing. The colours these produced are brilliant and vivid; some fifteen different colours were available and as many as seven could be used on a single vessel.
