Page 603 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

470 4/1
in the other (Jones 1985, no. 78). He stands on a
PAIR OF EAR ORNAMENTS snake-headed litter borne by two men in "sun- PAIR OF EAR ORNAMENTS
rise" headdresses. All three figures wear ear
before 1470 c. 1470
Chimu ornaments. Under the litter a small, bird-headed Chimu
hammered and cut gold figure holds a double-spouted vessel, a typical wood and feathers
l
diameter 13.5 (5^/4] Chimu pottery form. Pottery was itself sacred and diameter 6.4 (2/2)
was used in rituals; it is often depicted in north-
Jan Mitchell and Sons, New York coast art. American Museum of Natural History, New York
Pre-Columbian peoples collected gold from
Large ear ornaments with thick tubes were placer deposits, although there was also mining These figures, which seem to be swimming in
common adornments for the elite in the Andes as from auriferous quartz veins (Lechtman 1980, space, are abbreviated forms of the creatures seen
well as in Central and Middle America. Ear pierc- 321). Silver was mined, but some may have been on the large painted hanging from the Textile
ing was usually a ritual event, and the ornaments taken from surface outcroppings. There is some Museum (cat. 464). These ear-ornament figures
that were later worn bore symbolic motifs and evidence for the smelting of silver ores or argen- lack lower limbs but have the same tail. The
often had a particular shape and decoration that tiferous lead ores. E.P.B. ornaments are probably fairly late in the Chimu
identified the rank and ritual occupation of the sequence, perhaps after the 14605 (A. Rowe
wearer. This spool form of ear ornament was worn 1984,171-172).
by prominent people on the north coast of Peru The wooden bases have been carved to make
for at least a millennium. The beaded frame is the face project from the surface. Chopped feath-
typical. ers of parrot (green), macaw (yellow and red), and
In the scene on these ornaments, a central fig- tanager or honeycreeper (purple-blue) have been
ure in an enormous, elaborate headdress with a glued on. E.P.B.
step motif holds a beaker in one hand and a fan

602 CIRCA 1492