Page 637 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

54*

BIRD-MAN PENDANT
Popaydn (Cauca)
cast and hammered gold or gold alloy
1
13.3 (5 /*)
National Museum of the American Indian,
Smithsonian Institution

This Popayan pendant is closely related to cat. 538
and represents the bird-man variant of the form.
The body and limbs are those of a lizard or croco-
dile; the wings and feathered crest belong to a
bird; the human face is provided with a nose disc.
This item is reported to have come from Mani-
zales, in the department of Caldas, Colombia. If
the provenance is correct, the pendant was found
more than two hundred miles from its place of
manufacture. W.B.

542

BIRD

Popaydn (Cauca)
cast and hammered gold
3
i3.*5(5 /')
Jan Mitchell and Sons, New York

The crested bird is a recurrent image in Popayan
metalwork (compare the head of this piece with
those of the bird quadrupeds on cat. 538), but this
example is unique in its treatment of the theme.
The bird appears to be in motion, a falcon diving
toward its prey, and the wings and body are
reduced to an openwork plaque, which simulta-
neously gives the impression of feathers and
repeats the triangular motifs characteristic of
Popayan art. The whole effect is achieved with a
beautiful economy. Seen from an oblique angle
the object appears to be a three-dimensional bird,
but when it is held vertically the bird head merges
into an abstract geometrical pattern. The function
of this item is uncertain; it may have been a lime
spatula, a headdress ornament, or even the finial
of a wooden staff. w. B .

636 CIRCA 1492