Page 620 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

TAIRONA and to have continued until the sixteenth cen- ished, gilded, and cleaned of residues. The
The Taironas, the ancient inhabitants of the tury, when the Spaniards reported numerous objects were designed for intensive use. The
Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern densely populated urban nuclei (Reichel- diadems, nose ornaments, and necklaces show
Colombia, began their consolidation into a po- Dolmatoff 1954; Bischof 1968). The remains of signs of surface wear, and the rings have lost
litical and social entity at the beginning of the more than two hundred dispersed settlements some of their high relief.
modern era. The objects in metal that these have been found in the lowlands and in the In Tairona iconography, frogs, serpents, birds
people produced during the formative period of mountains at altitudes up to two thousand of prey, and felines are frequently combined
f
their culture, in the sixth and seventh centuries meters (6500 eet; see Cadavid y Turbay 1985). into complex hybrid figures such as bat-men,
A.D. (Bischof 1968; Oyuela 1985), have a This was the period of classical Tairona gold jaguar-men, and bird-men. These motifs are
characteristically hybrid quality; some show work, a quite distinct phenomenon within the closely related to the religion of the present-day
the influence of the metallurgical traditions of panorama of pre-Hispanic Colombian metal- Ijka and Kogui, indigenous communities con-
the south, while others suggest subjects that lurgy. Despite great variety in their decoration, sisting of about ten thousand people who
would later become common in classical the thousands of preserved objects form a inhabit the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The
Tairona gold work. The advanced technology coherent whole by virtue of their technology, iconography of the classical Tairona objects
that they demonstrate was probably not their elaborate style, and the homogeneity of conveys a specific system of beliefs and a
developed locally; these techniques, most likely the themes and forms represented (Plazas 1987; world-view that explains the use of these
reflecting outside influence, were adapted and Falchetti 1987). The Taironas used the lost-wax adornments in the society. The highly elaborate
integrated in Tairona gold work, which was in technique for casting their gold, in which the designs of the Tairona pieces indicate their
f
the process of gradually acquiring its strength object was irst modeled in wax and then emblematic function. These variegated repre-
and coherence (Falchetti 1987). encased in clay, forming a mold into which sentations of human beings with animal attri-
The period of greatest development of molten metal was poured. Each mold was ori- butes appear to have identified specific social
Tairona culture in the coastal region and on the ginal and very elaborate. The pieces have con- groups, mythically and ancestrally related to
northern slopes of the Sierra Nevada is thought siderable volume and were perfectly finished: certain animals.
to have begun around the tenth century A.D. when extracted from the mold they were pol-

cat. 501

500-501
Two HUMAN FIGURE PENDANTS

Tairona
cast, gilded gold-copper alloy
2
500: 15.8 (6 /4J
501:7.8(3)
private collection
cat. 500
The so-called cacique pendants from Caribbean chiefs (caciques) dressed in full regalia. These bands, belt, and penis cover. These miniature gold
Colombia are among the finest and most detailed figures wear enormous headdresses, each topped ornaments are shown with meticulous accuracy,
gold castings from pre-Columbian America. They by a pair of large-beaked birds, with elaborate side and are comparable to full-size examples found in
are hollow cast by the lost-wax method, and much pieces, a visor or diadem with two vertical pro- Tairona tombs. The larger of the two pendants
of the clay and charcoal core is left inside the jections, a set of tubes or a kidney-shaped orna- represents the cacique figure in its classic form.
heads and bodies to give weight and strength to ment in the septum of the nose, a labret in the The smaller version is an exquisite piece of cast-
the relatively thin metal. In their most typical lower lip, disc-headed bars and crescent-shaped ing. The loops on the extremities of the headdress
form these pendants depict Tairona noblemen or danglers through the ear lobes, necklaces, arm once held danglers. W.B.

THE A M E R I C A S 619