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![]() ![]() 390–450, Peru, Loma Negra, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Nose Ornament with Intertwined Serpents, Gold, silver eyes restored, The earflares are made entirely of hammered gold sheet, including the tiny hollow spheres around the disks. He is on a litter-the transport of choice for high-ranking Chimú individuals-held aloft by two figures wearing similar, smaller headdresses. This pair of ear ornaments depicts a lord wearing a large crescent headdress. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Jan Mitchell and Sons Collection, Gift of Jan Mitchell, 1991 Pair of Earflares with Multifigure Scenes, Gold, Chimú, A.D. Pair of Earflares with Multifigure Scenes Ritual running by a human or an anthropomorphized animal is one of the most frequently depicted activities in later Moche ceramics, but, as with the lizard motif on the other ornaments, its full meaning is unknown. Darker inlays on the kneecaps, lower legs, and feet represent the figures’ body paint. One pair here portrays winged runners, likely anthropomorphized owls, each holding a small bag. Moche artists worked tiny pieces of highly valued materials such as shell, turquoise, and other blue-green stones into mosaics on the large circular frontals of ear ornaments. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Pair of Ear Ornaments with Winged Runners, Gold, turquoise, sodalite, shell, Reportedly found at La Mina, in the Jequetepeque Valley, the frontlet is remarkably similar to an example illustrated on a ceramic vessel from Dos Cabezas. The creature rests on two clawlike feet, depicted in low relief. Made of gold sheet, it was cut into the shape of a supernatural figure with serrated octopus tentacles that terminate in catfish heads. This object would have been affixed to a cylindrical headdress. 300-600, Peru, La Mina, Museo de la Nación, Lima, Octopus Frontlet, Gold, chrysocolla, shells, Moche A.D. As there was no writing tradition in the ancient Andes, the precise meaning of this imagery remains unknown. The mouth masks-a type of ornament worn suspended from the septum of the nose-feature feline creatures with prominent fangs on one example the animal grasps human figures (seen in profile) in its claws. Part of a group of funerary offerings for a male who died at about sixty years old, were found in a tomb under the principal platform at Kuntur Wasi. Peru-Kuntur Wasi_Tomb A-TM2, San Pablo_Ministerio de Cultura del Perú. Image © Kuntur Wasi Museum. Mouth Mask with Feline Creature and Human Figures,G old, Cupisnique-Chavín-800-550 B.C. Mouth Mask with Feline Creature and Human Figures In all places, artists and their patrons selected materials that could provoke a strong response-perceptually, sensually, andĬonceptually-and transport the wearer and beholder beyond the realm of the mundane. Jade, rather than gold, was most esteemed by the Olmecs and the Maya, while the Incas and the Aztecs prized feathers and tapestry. First exploited in the Andes around 2000 B.C., gold was closely associated with the supernatural realm, and over the course of several thousand years the practice of making prestige objects in gold for rulers and deities gradually moved northward, into Central America and Mexico.īut in many areas other materials were more highly valued. In the ancient Americas, gold, silver, and copper were used primarily to create regalia and ritual objects-metals were only secondarily used to create weapons and tools. Of ancient American art and culture, showcasing more than 300 objectsĭrawn from more than 50 museums in 12 countries The exhibition present a new understanding What we present in this show are not only spectacular artworks, but also rare and enormously important objects that escaped destruction.” And time has taken a heavy toll on featherworks and textiles, which were considered more precious than gold by many indigenous societies. “Countless works of gold and silver were melted down, and delicate native manuscripts were deliberately burned as part of campaigns to stamp out native religions. “Ideas about artistic production in the ancient Americas have traditionally been based on works in ceramic and stone-objects of durable materials,” “But there were also exquisitely worked objects of rare and fragile materials, most of which were destroyed at the time of the Spanish Conquest. Pearson Curator of the Arts of the Ancient Americas The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, 2015 Benefit Fund and Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 2016 Serpent Labret with Articulated Tongue, Gold, Aztec, A.D. ![]() Luxury and Legacy in the Ancient Americas ![]()
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