Cleveland Museum of Art
Plaque
- Date
- c. 500–200 BCE
- Medium
- hammered and cut gold
- Culture
- Peru, North Coast, Chongoyape(?), Chavín style (900-200 BCE)
- Department
- Art of the Americas
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 117824
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
These plaques showing a powerful Chavín deity may come from a group of gold objects found in a lavish tomb in the 1920s. One is shaped as the deity’s fanged head, its fur transformed into sixteen serpents that edge the plaque. On the other, the deity’s visually elusive body also appears: the clawed hands over the chest may clutch a horizontal staff, an emblem of authority; across the waist is a belt that sprouts serpents; and beneath are the legs and feet, which stand atop fanged masks. Hammered gold ornaments have been produced in the Andes since 1500 BCE.
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Dudley P. Allen Fund
- Provenance
- ?-1938: Baron Walram von Schoeler, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art | 1938-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Part of a LinkedCulture topic
Pre-Columbian Body AdornmentThese objects are personal ornaments and jewelry worn by ancient Mesoamerican and Andean cultures, including ear ornaments, nose ornaments, plaques, and costume decorations made from precious metals, stone, shell, and ce
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