Fall 2022 - The Figure

The works shown here are among those featured in Golden Worlds: The Portable Universe of
Indigenous Colombia, organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston, and the Museo del Oro of Banco de la República, Bogota, on view November 6, 2022, through
April 16, 2023, in the Art of the Indigenous Americas Galleries of the Caroline Wiess Law Building.
Figuring and
Adorning the Body
in Ancient Colombia
BY REX KOONTZ
CONSULTING CURATOR OF ANCIENT AMERICAN ART
The Indigenous people of Colombia produced some of the
most finely crafted, deeply meaningful gold art objects in
the Americas before the coming of the Spanish. Much of this
exquisite metalwork represented or was meant to be worn
on the body—or, at times, both. While seemingly straightforward,
the relationship between art and the human figure is
complicated by Indigenous ideas about the body, gold, and
representation. In Indigenous traditions, gold is believed to
transform its wearer. This power of transformation, rather than
the exchange value of gold as money, was the concept that
drove Indigenous creations in gold.
To understand the European relationship to the Indigenous
tradition of goldwork, many may recount the story of El Dorado,
the fabled city of gold. The idea of a golden city galvanized
many European explorers of the 16th century, among them
Sir Walter Raleigh and a number of Spanish conquistadors.
For the Indigenous South Americans of this time, however,
El Dorado referred not to a city but to a man—one who was
sanctified through a covering of gold dust and then bathed in
the waters of a sacred lake. These Native people believed that
the beauty and splendor of goldwork was intimately tied to its
role in sanctifying the human body. Through this ceremony
and the wearing of the gold, the Indigenous South Americans
believed a man was transformed into a powerful ruler.
The works shown here, drawn from the Glassell Collection
at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, demonstrate the significance
and transformative power of gold in relation to the human
figure in Indigenous culture before the arrival of Europeans.
This pectoral (opposite), or chest ornament, is a superb
example of the Calima style, one of the most complex and
celebrated of ancient Colombian metalwork. This type of
pectoral was made throughout the southwestern part of the
country, from about 100 BC to AD 800. Scholars agree that
these pectorals, when taken as a group, are some of the largest
and most impressive gold objects made by ancient Colombian
artists. The combination of a central raised relief and the more
delicate linear decoration on the outside border is typical of
this object type, but the example seen here is particularly
well realized.
A human face forms the center of the composition. Creating
this face was a two-step process: the face was first sculpted in
a hard material, probably a hardwood or stone; then, a flat
sheet of gold was pressed onto the sculpture, creating a raised
impression of the face on the sheet of metal.
The raised face is adorned with nose and ear ornaments,
imitating in miniature the gold ornaments worn by important
Indigenous leaders. The nose ornament was fashioned from a
single gold sheet in an inverted I-shape, with lightly embossed
decoration. The ear ornaments were not adorned with such
designs, however, allowing the viewer to focus on their perfect
geometry.
The central face is a highly conventionalized figure that is
repeated throughout Calima art. Scholars have suggested that
the figure could depict a god or an ancestor. While the central
face follows the traditional model seen throughout Calima
art, the geometric designs on the outer border are unique to
S U R F A C I N G
09
8 3/4 × 11 × 1 1/8”