[Illustration: Fig. 186. Double vessel with high arched handle--½.]
Complex and compound forms are comparatively rare. A double vessel is shown in Fig. 186, and a second, varying somewhat from the first in shape and ornamentation, is presented in the succeeding figure. Vessels of this form are always small, but are neatly constructed and finished with much care. The strong handles are more or less arched and connect the inner margins of the two lips. The bodies of the twin cups are closely joined, but the two compartments are not connected.
[Illustration: Fig. 187. Double vessel with arched handle--½.]
It seems impossible to present a satisfactory series of the plastic features characteristic of this group of products without extending this paper inordinately. Handles, legs, and life forms are varied and interesting; they are not so boldly treated, however, as in some of the other groups. This is a result perhaps of the unusual degree of polish given to all parts of the surface preparatory to the application of designs in color, the processes tending to subdue and simplify the salient features.
[Illustration: Fig. 188. Vase embellished with life forms, heads in relief and other parts in color--½.]
With reference to life forms it has already been pointed out that the painted figures generally imitate or typify animal forms, and it is important to note that these figures are in very many cases used as auxiliaries to plastic features in the development of particular conceptions. This is shown to advantage in Fig. 188, which illustrates a small, well formed bottle, having two large human-like heads attached to opposite sides of the body. There are no other plastic features, but the heads are supplied with arms and legs, rudely expressed in black lines, which are really the interspaces of the lines drawn in the lost color. These painted parts occupy the zone usually devoted to decoration and, as will be seen by reference to the cut, resemble closely the radiate or meandered figures seen in vases of the class shown in Fig. 167. The arms are joined to the lower part of the head and extend upward to the neck of the vessel, where they terminate in rudely suggested fingers. Rising to the right and left of the arms are legs terminating as do the arms. A double row of dots is carried along each member, and thus we have a suggestion of the relation of the dots and dotted lines, seen in more highly conventional forms, to the markings of the creature represented or symbolized. The grotesque faces are covered with lines which follow the forms as if imitating markings upon the skin. Another example, equally suggestive, also employing an animal form, is shown in Fig. 189. It is a cup, mounted upon three feet, which has attached to one side the head of a peccary, modeled with more than usual skill. The ears of the animal appear at the sides of the vessel and the tail is opposite the head. The lines and dots seen upon the head are carried along the sides of the vessel as far as the ears and undoubtedly represent the markings of the animal’s skin. Behind the ears the markings are different in character and purely geometric. A view of the under side of the vessel is shown in Fig. 190 and illustrates a treatment characteristic of the tripod vases of this class. In other cases, instead of fixing the head of the animal upon one side and other members of the body upon other sides, two heads, or two complete creatures, are placed opposite each other.