Page 624 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

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TOAD PENDANT WITH HEADS OF JAGUAR-MAN FINIAL LIP PLUG WITH SERPENT'S HEAD
JAGUAR AND SERPENT
Tairona Tairona
Tairona bone cast gold
cast gilded gold-copper alloy 7.2 X 5.4 (2 /4 X 2 /8) 2.9 X 4.6 (iVs X ! /4)
3
2
3
2
$.6 X 5 (2 /8 X 2) Museo del Oro, Banco de la Republica, Bogota Museo del Oro, Banco de la Republica, Bogota
Museo del Oro, Banco de la Republica, Bogota
This carved bone finial depicts a jaguar-man car- This type of adornment was made to be worn
For the inhabitants of the Sierra Nevada de Santa rying another being on his back. A bird of prey through a hole below the lip. This example
Marta, this group of animals represents basic con- pecks at his skull. A.M.F. is decorated with the head of a serpent with a
flicts. The rising sun, the east side of the universe, forked tongue. A.M.F.
is dominated by the jaguar, which represents the
positive side of human existence. The serpent,
symbol of darkness, evil, and death, is master of
the west, the side of the setting sun. In the
middle, in the land of humanity, is a toad, the first
spouse of the sun and a symbol of female sexual-
ity (see Reichel-Dolmatoff 1985). A.M.F.

THE AMERICAS 623