Page 625 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

5*4
LARGE CRESCENT-SHAPED EARRINGS

Tairona
cast gold
5
each 8.1 x 9.4 (3 Vs x 3 /s]
Museo del Oro, Banco de la Republica, Bogota

Hollow half-moon earrings, cast in gold or the
gold-copper alloy known as tumbaga, are
common in Tairona gold work, although this pair
is unusually large.
A.M.F.

5*5
EARRINGS WITH SERPENTS

Tairona
cast gold
5
4.2 x 7.8 (i /sx 3]
Museo del Oro, Banco de la Republica, Bogota

This pair of earrings is decorated with two ser-
pents, facing in opposite directions, whose bodies
are stylized as circles of false filigree. The serpent,
in Kogui mythology an immortal animal associ-
ated with darkness and the west, is also a symbol
of the movement of time. A.M.F.

624 CIRCA 1492