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Rain of the Moon: Silver in Ancient Peru

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Warrior plaque, 7th–10th century; Wari. Silver. The Glassell Collection.

More about This Exhibition
An unprecedented exhibition devoted to ancient Peruvian silver dating from the early part of the first millennium to the 16th century was on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from November 3, 2000 through April 29, 2001. With more than 100 works from public and private collections in the United States, "Rain of the Moon: Silver in Ancient Peru" explored the 2,000-year-old tradition of sophisticated silver-working, artistic creativity, and technological ingenuity that prospered in Precolumbian Peru.

Nearly half of the more than 100 works in the exhibition were drawn from the Metropolitan's holdings, which in both range and quality are the strongest collection of ancient Peruvian silver in the United States. The scope of the exhibition was enriched further through generous loans from major public institutions and private collections in the United States, including the Brooklyn Museum; The Cleveland Museum of Art; Denver Art Museum; Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.; The Museum of Fine Art, Houston; Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University; and The Art Museum, Princeton University.

The exhibition was made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

More about Silver in Ancient Peru

More about the Objects on View

Educational Programs

Exhibition Publication

Exhibition Organizers and Credits

More about Silver in Ancient Peru
Precious metals had a special status in ancient Peruvian civilizations. As materials, silver and gold were symbols of power and prestige and also held symbolic and religious significance. Objects of silver and gold were worn exclusively by the elite, and expressed social status and political authority in life and death when they were placed as offerings in tombs with the deceased. The title of the exhibition derives from an Inka invocation chanted by tillers working the fields: "The sun rains gold, the moon rains silver."

While today gold commands more attention than silver because it is more highly valued, silver was to the ancients equally cherished and revered. When the Spaniards arrived in South America in the 16th century, they discovered a vast area on the Pacific side, stretching from Ecuador in the north to central Chile in the south, ruled by the Inka. They reported that all the gold and silver in the land was the property of the supreme ruler of the Inka and that those two metals were associated with celestial deities. The warm, reflective glow of gold symbolized the sun, a male deity; the soft, cool sheen of silver symbolized the moon, a female deity and source of life-giving waters.

From a modest beginning in the late first millennium B.C. when silver first appeared in small personal adornments, it was exploited to its fullest during the 12th through 15th century, when the Lords of the Chimú Kingdom ruled over the northern part of the Peruvian coast. At that time silver was used for objects of all kinds, from grand items of jewelry such as earflares and necklace beads, to disks and vessels both large and small, to sheathing elements for sizeable works in materials such as wood. Necessitating greater technical ability and knowledge than the working of gold—which exists as a metallic element in nature—silver must be smelted and refined before it can be made into objects.

More about the Objects on View
The earliest works featured in the exhibition date to about the first century B.C. and are chiefly ornaments made to be worn suspended from the nose; they were worn by men of high status and were among the earliest forms of personal jewelry in ancient Peru. They continued to be made, often in silver-gold combinations, for several centuries and remained in fashion until about A.D. 800. Those made by the Moche (ca. 100–800) were large enough to cover the lower face. One such masterpiece is the Nose Ornament with Shrimp dated 2nd–3rd century A.D. It consists of two realistic shrimp worked in gold sheet and tabbed through slits to a large silver crescent.

Metal finds from the Wari and Tiwanaku cultures, in power in the south highlands after A.D. 600, are rare and only few objects in silver are known. An outstanding example of silverwork from this period is the Warrior Plaque (7th–10th century) showing a broad-shouldered man dressed in a long tunic and wearing a four-cornered hat. He holds a spear-thrower and shield (The Glassell Collection).

Learn More about the Objects on View

Educational Programs
In conjunction with the exhibition, the Metropolitan Museum offered a variety of educational programs and resources, including documentary films, lectures, family and teacher programs, and gallery talks.

Exhibition Publication
The exhibition was accompanied by an illustrated catalogue Rain of the Moon: Silver in Ancient Peru authored by Heidi King, with essays by two Peruvian scholars from the Pontificia Universidad Católica, Lima. The catalogue is available in a paperback edition at the Museum's Bookshop and in the online Met Store.

The exhibition catalogue was made possible, in part, by the Roswell L. Gilpatric Fund for Publications.

Exhibition Organizers and Credits
The exhibition was initiated with the collaboration of The Americas Society, New York. The exhibition was organized by Heidi King, research associate in the Metropolitan Museum's Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.

Institutional lenders to the exhibition included the American Museum of Natural History, New York; The Art Museum, Princeton University; Brooklyn Museum of Art; The Cleveland Museum of Art; Dallas Museum of Art; Denver Art Museum; Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.; Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables; Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Santiago; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Exhibition design was by Dennis Kois, assistant manager of design, with graphics by Jill Hammarberg, graphic designer, and lighting by Zack Zanolli, lighting designer, all of the Museum's Design Department.

Photograph Credits