Plaque

Creator not recorded by the museum

Date: c. 500–200 BCE
Medium: hammered and cut gold
Dimensions: Overall: 12.5 x 13.8 cm (4 15/16 x 5 7/16 in.)
Country / context: Peru, North Coast, Chongoyape(?), Chavín style (900-200 BCE)
Movement / tradition: Central and South American arts
Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art
Pathway: Central and South American arts ↗

FROM THE MUSEUM

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.

Collection text · The Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0

A MOMENT TO LOOK

Start with what you can see: shapes, surface, colour and scale. How might the listed materials affect the way this object was made and experienced?

Looking prompt · an invitation to observe, not a historical interpretation.

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