Ancient Amerindians from the tropics had a special reverence for the most powerful animal predators. Although jaguar, eagle, and cayman were at the top of the pantheon representing the earth, air, and water realms, respectively, other animals, including serpents and bats, were also widely represented. These animals were perceived to be closer to the cosmic forces of nature than to the human realm, and their images were used by ritual specialists, who directed the powers of the animal world to benefit their people.
Bats are represented on a variety of objects from the Intermediate Area, from small pendants of jade or gold to full-sized pectorals like the one represented here. This gold embossed pectoral depicts a bat from the underside. The flat area surrounding the body, a stylized representation of its outspread wings and tail, is decorated with eight zoomorphic figures framed by triangular and stepped designs. Similarities in metalwork techniques and iconographic features relate this object to cultures of the Pacific coasts of Ecuador and Colombia but more likely to the Tolita-Tumaco tradition.
Bibliography
Bennett, Wendell C. 1944 Archeological Regions of Colombia: A Ceramic Survey. Yale University Publications in Anthropology, No. 30. Yale University Press; H. Milford Oxford University Press, New Haven and London. pl. 9d.
Bennett, Wendell C. 1946 The Archaeology of Colombia. In Handbook of South American Indians, Julian Haynes Steward, ed., pp. 7 v. Bulletin / Bureau of American Ethnology; 143, United States Interdepartmental Committee on Culture and Scientific Cooperation, general editor. G.P.O., Washington. pl. 170i.
Benson, Elizabeth P. 1963 Handbook of the Robert Woods Bliss Collection of Pre-Columbian Art. Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, Washington, D.C., p. 57, cat. 323.
Bühl, Gudrun (ED.) 2008 Dumbarton Oaks: The Collections. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C., p. 250-1.
Exhibition History
"75 Years/75 Objects", Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC, 9/8/2015 - 5/22/2016.
Acquisition History
Formerly in the Federico Restrepo Collection, Medellin, Colombia
Purchased from John Wise, New York (dealer), by Robert Woods Bliss, June 8, 1961.
Robert Woods Bliss Collection of Pre-Columbian Art, Washington, DC, 1961-1962.
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Pre-Columbian Collection, Washington, DC.
