Encyclopedia of the Incas

and if the gifts were not accepted, the Incas would attack and the heads of the
leaders were converted into drinking cups. In fact, the first objects presented by
the Inca ruler, Atahualpa, to the Spaniards as they made their way to Cajamarca
were two sets of aquillas. Unfortunately the Inca ruler’s offer was not accepted
and eventually he was captured and executed (see Invasion, Spanish). Although
this event marked the beginning of the end of the Inca Empire, both keros and
aquillas not only continued to be made by Andean peoples, but they saw a
florescence in the Colonial period.
The kero, in particular, became an extremely important medium of Colonial
Andean artistic expression, continuing until today. Nevertheless, the decoration
and designs found on the Colonial vessels are radically different from their Inca
predecessors. Colonial artisans filled in the incised wooden surfaces with colors
mixed with a resin-based substance. In addition, the designs shifted from the
abstract geometric ones of the Inca period to pictorial forms arranged in
increasingly complex narrative compositions.
One of the earliest painted keros was found in an early Colonial, Inca-style
grave at Ollantaytambo in the Urubamba valley in Cuzco. It has a small jaguar
painted in red with gold and silver highlights with a series of incised concentric
rectangles placed in the center. A number of other Colonial keros combine Inca
incised designs with painted figural motifs. The majority of the images on these
keros are either animal figures, such as the jaguar on the Ollantaytambo pair, or
insects such as butterflies.
As Spanish artistic norms began to spread throughout the Andes, some Native
artists transferred their new skills and pictorial techniques to the keros and
aquillas. As a result, artisans decorated the vessels with more complex pictorial
scenes, many of which depict the human figure, dressed in archaic imperial Inca
dress. The more complex scenes often depict Inca ritual ceremonies in which
keros and aquillas were used.
Only a few Colonial aquillas have survived, in part because the monetary
value of their gold or silver made them vulnerable to sale or theft. In
comparison, a large number of Colonial painted keros remain in private and
public collections throughout the world. Their beauty and imagery have made
them popular with collectors since the eighteenth century. In fact, several
examples were sent to King Charles III in 1773. Most keros have remained in
Andean communities over the centuries, and they appear to have been almost
mass-produced during the later Colonial period. They began to be collected in
greater numbers at only the beginning of the twentieth century so that some