Photo Credit: © Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC. Photography by Neil Greentree.
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Description
Despite said to be found near the city of Huarmey in the coast of the Ancash department in Peru, judging from the style and technology this object can be dated to the mid-Early Horizon (ca. 400 CE) and can be seen as related to similar objects said to be from the highland site of Chavin de Huantar like PC.B.441.
The object has a convex-curved body with a broad, flattened shelf-like rim decorated with an angular guilloche pattern. As do other gorgets in the same style, this one has two holes punched in it, presumably so that it could be hung around the neck as a large pendant or chest ornament. It is fashioned from a ternary alloy of gold silver and copper, being this an intentional alloy that corresponds to a 14K gold. The object, which is extremely uniform in thickness, was shaped to form by sequences of hammering and annealing the metal sheet. The guilloche motif was raised by working from the back; each element of the design had been executed free hand, hammering the metal into a resilient bed. A final burnishing was applied to achieve smooth, uninterrupted, and rounded contours of the design.
Bibliography
Alva, Walter L. 1992 Orfebrería Del Formativo. In Oro Del Antiguo Perú, José Antonio de Lavalle, ed., pp. 17-118. 1. ed. Colección Arte Y Tesoros Del Perú. Banco de Credito del Perú en la Cultura, Lima. p. 58, pl. 44, 45.
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. 63, cat. 349.
Bliss, Robert Woods 1957 Pre-Columbian Art: The Robert Woods Bliss Collection. Text and Critical Analyses by S. K. Lothrop, Joy Mahler and William F. Foshag. Phaidon, New York. p. 273, cat. 302, pl. CXXIII.
Boone, Elizabeth Hill (ED.) 1996 Andean Art at Dumbarton Oaks. Pre-Columbian Art at Dumbarton Oaks; No. 1. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C. vol. 1, p. 71-5, pl. 5.
Lothrop, Samuel K. 1951 Gold Artifacts of Chavin Style. American Antiquity 16 (3):226-240. p. 227.
Exhibition History
"Indigenous Art of the Americas", National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, August 1949 to July 1962.
Acquisition History
Purchased from Walram von Schoeler, New York (dealer), by Robert Woods Bliss, 1949.
Robert Woods Bliss Collection of Pre-Columbian Art, Washington, DC, 1949-1962.
Dumbarton Oaks, Pre-Columbian Collection, Washington, DC.
