Cleveland Museum of Art

Disk-Shaped Chest Plaque

Date: c. 700–1550
Medium: hammered gold
Culture: Costa Rica or Panama
Department: Art of the Americas
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 127723

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

Technologically, this pectoral (chest plaque) is unlike the other gold shown in this case. Rather than being cast of molten metal, it was made by hammering metal into a thin sheet. Costa Rican and Panamanian metalsmiths favored casting, but they were skilled in hammering, a technology better suited to creating large objects with glittering, reflective surfaces. The import of the breast-like protrusions is unknown.

View at Cleveland Museum of Art ↗

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

Get printable QR codes

Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.

Open this page

See at Cleveland Museum of Art

Provenance & credit

As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.

Credit line: Gift of Mrs. Newton D. Baker in memory of her husband, Newton D. Baker

Part of a LinkedCulture topic

Pre-Columbian Body Adornment
These 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
359 objects from 4 institutions