Cleveland Museum of Art

Figural Pendant

Date

400–700

Medium

cast gold

Culture

Panama, Darién or Venado Beach region, Openwork style, 5th-8th Century

Department

Art of the Americas

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This emphatically male figure combines a human body with a composite animal head. The antlers are the stag's; the snout, perhaps a snarling feline's; and the hair is formed of braided serpents whose heads hiss from the figure's shoulders. The extended tongue may convey aggression or perhaps death because dying animals are depicted with lolling tongues. Either condition is in keeping with the creature's ferocity. This ornament was made with the lost-wax casting technique.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.