Page 601 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

467-468

Two EFFIGY VESSELS

Chimu
before 1470
467: DEER
hammered silver
12.7 x 19 x 8.2 (5 x 7 /2 x 3 /4J
2
2
468: PANPIPER
hammered silver with turquoise inlay
3
l
l
21X11X7 (8 /4 X 4 /4 X 2 /4J
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The
Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Gift of
Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1969
These two vessels were reportedly part of a large
group of silver effigy vessels and other offerings
found in a tomb or tombs in a pyramid at
Hacienda Mocollope in the Chicama Valley on the
north coast of Peru. They are made of separate
pieces of hammered silver soldered together.
The panpiper wears pendant disk ear ornaments
and a garment with a wave design made by
engraving and pecking. A stepped motif on his
hand may represent tattooing. Toenails and fin-
gernails are indicated by incising. Panpipes, usu-
ally made of reeds or pottery, were prevalent on
the coast and in other regions, but they do not
seem to have been an Inka instrument. Other
instruments included drums, flutes, trumpets,
whistles, and ocarinas. Panpipes were particularly
significant instruments; they are usually shown
played by figures of richer dress and higher status
than those playing other instruments.
The reclining deer vessel has a bowl on its back.
The deer was one of the most important motifs in
the art of the north coast of Peru in the pre-
466 Columbian era. The ancestors of the peoples
living in this region had hunted deer as a primary
TABARD emulated it. The Chimu probably kept captive food. Later, when there were populations of
birds such as macaws, parrots, and Muscovy ducks settled farmers, the deer became an agricultural
c. 1465 (O'Neill in A. Rowe 1984,146-150). Many birds, symbol. The stag's antlers grow in synchroniza-
Chimu
cotton with applied feathers alive or dead, would have been brought from the tion with the growing cycle of plants; the antlers
3
98 x 68 (381/2 x 26 / 4) Amazon region to the coast. The feathers on this look like tree branches; deer eat vegetation,
garment are mainly from the blue and yellow including the farmer's crops; stags feeding from
The Textile Museum, Washington macaw. The fabric is plain-weave cotton with trees may get leafage entwined in their woody
paired warps. antlers. Deer-hunt scenes with vegetation are
Some of the finest extant American feather work Important persons were carried in litters in the one of the most common motifs of earlier north-
was that done by the Chimu people of the north Andes, and, in art, supernaturals are often litter- coast art. E.P.B
coast of Peru. After the Inka conquest of the king- borne. The motif of large pelicans carried in litters
dom of Chimor, some Chimu artists and crafts- by small pelicans on this tabard is not uncommon
men were taken to Cuzco, so impressed were in Chimu weavings.
the Inka with Chimii workmanship. Later, pre- Tabard is the name given to tunics with open
Columbian feather work sent back to Europe sides. Tabards were usually smaller than the
inspired European craftsmen who admired and closed tunics. E.P.B.

600 CIRCA 1492