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Rain of the Moon: Silver in Ancient Peru
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Beaker with repoussé decoration, 14th–15th century; Chimú. North Coast.
Silver. Denver Art Museum.
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More about the Objects on View
Works made during the Chimú period (ca.1100–1470) formed the core of the exhibition. By the
beginning of this period, silver was sufficiently available for great vessels to be
made of it. Chimú objects in silver range widely in type and exhibit concern with
elaborated surfaces. Well-finished and smoothed surfaces were produced as were those of complex repoussé imagery in which no part of the surface, even vessel bottoms, remained unadorned. Particularly impressive in the exhibition were: Beaker with Repoussé Decoration (14th–15th century), a ritual drinking vessel covered with narratives in fine repoussé (Denver Art Museum); and Litter Backrest (14th–15th century), a rare backrest of a royal litter of wood, decorated with befeathered bird sculptures and a scene in cutout sheet silver (Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University).
The Chancay culture—contemporary with the Chimú—that flourished along the central coast north of Lima, was represented by a number of charming miniatures, which were buried by the ancients as votive offerings. Among them was Funeral Procession (14th–15th century), showing two mournful pallbearers followed by four men carrying the empty litter of an important individual on their shoulders (Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois).
The silverwork of the subsequent period is much less well known as a result of the looting and smelting practices of the conquering Spaniards of the 1530s. Few Inka silver objects remain intact today. Arguably the finest example of Inka silversmithing in existence is the impressive sculpture of the Long-haired Llama from the island of Titicaca (American Museum of Natural History, New York). It had been placed by the Inka near a sacred rock on the island as an offering to the gods.
Another highlight of the exhibition was the early-16th-century Female Figure (Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Santiago), a small figurine wearing a splendid feather headdress and dressed in colorful miniature garments. It was discovered in 1954 in a child burial on Cerro El Plomo in central Chile at an altitude of almost 18,000 feet. The high altitude and subfreezing temperatures at the burial site account for the excellent state of preservation of the object.
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