The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Special Exhibitions: Radiance from the Rain Forest: Featherwork in Ancient Peru

Radiance from the Rain Forest: Featherwork in Ancient Peru

		Pair of Ear Ornaments Chimú 13th–15th century Wood, feathers (modern posts); Diam. 4 in. (10 cm) Private collection See a detail view of one of these ornaments.

To express their power and wealth, Chimú kings who ruled on Peru's north coast during the last few centuries before the Spanish conquest commissioned large, ostentatious personal accessories in luxury materials from highly skilled craft specialists. The concave frontals of these ornaments are covered with delicate, precisely cut feather mosaic. The design, arranged in registers around a circle, is rendered in five different colors of feathers. Seven human figures with light blue faces and feet wear dark blue garments; bending forward, they are joined at the bottom of their garments by a fine green line that continues into a series of scrolls or waves running the length of their strongly curved profile bodies. The bent figure in Chimú art is known as the anthropomorphized (humanized) wave; though a frequent motif, its meaning is not well understood. In between the figures are long-beaked sea birds.