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| Forehead ornament with feline head and octopus tentacles ending in catfish heads, 100–800, Peruvian, Mochica, North Coast, possibly La Mina, gold, chrysocolla, shells, 28.5 x 41.4 x 4.5 cm, Museo de la Nación, Lima. Photo: Daniel Giannoni. |
Seatle Art Museum has an exhibition on at the moment "Peru: Kingdoms of the Sun and the Moon" (Brian Miller, 'Visual Arts: SAM’s Big Peru Show', Seattle News and Events, Nov 5 2013). Earlier it was in Montreal. Like the contemporary BM exhibition in the 'archaeology' section, there are a lot of elite objects from rich tombs on show:
Only the elite could amass and preserve any treasure; how the forgotten peasants lived or what they created is for scholars to speculate [actually I think he meant "investigate" didn't he? PMB]. What we’re now seeing under glass are mostly tokens of power and self-validation, the symbols of a hierarchy—which is no less true in the museums of Europe. When one looks at the spectacular gold Mochica octopus ornament (looted in 1988, recovered by Scotland Yard in 2004), its purpose is obscure to us now. Circa A.D. 100–800, it would’ve been worn on the forehead during ritual ceremonies. With a snarling cat face at its center, it would’ve conferred status on its wearer—and possibly fear among those who beheld him. Then it was entombed with its owner to perpetuate that status in the afterlife. The fantastical, chimerical object, here seen for the first time outside Peru since its recovery, even gets its own ocean-blue gallery with a companion video.Arthur Brand comments:
This piece was returned to Peru thanks to Van Rijn, George Gamarra and myself
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