Figure pendant

Tairona artists of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia produced some of the grandest and most complex gold objects ever made in the Americas. This pendant is an excellent example of the skill and virtuosity possessed by Tairona goldworkers. Of considerable volume, it depicts a broad-shouldered male figure standing in a confrontational hands-on-hips stance. His head features a toothy snout of a crocodile, but a diamond-shaped nose leaf characteristic of bats. He wears an enormous headdress that is as tall as the figure itself. It has two big-beaked birds on the front of its cap and elaborate sidepieces with detailed spiral and braided elements. The figure may portray a supernatural being, or a ruler or ritual specialist in a state of symbolic and spiritual transformation.



The pendant was cast of tumbaga (a gold-copper alloy) by the lost-wax process. Its surface was subsequently enriched by the depletion method, also known as mise-en-couleur.