67 FIGS. 2 and 3: Installation view of galleries featureing sculpted hybrid heads. © Museum Rietberg. Photo: Rainer Wolfsberger. FIG. 1 (left): Installation view of the gallery dedicated to, among other things, the stirrup vessels that are characteristic of ancient Peru. © Museum Rietberg. Photo: Rainer Wolfsberger. ología, Antropología e Historia del Perú, the Museo Larco, and the Museo de la Nación, as well as from lesser known ones such as the Museo de Arqueología y Antropología de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, le Museo Nacional de Chavín, and especially the Kuntur Wasi Museum, all of which are far removed from the ordinary tourist circuits. This list is not complete, because in addition, the Swiss museum succeeded in obtaining some of the most famous works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and from Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC. These have never been seen in Europe before and were absent from other important exhibitions dedicated to pre-Hispanic Peru, such as, I popoli del Sole e della Luna (Milan, 1990), Perù: Tremila Anni di Capolavori (Florence, 2003), Perú Indígena y Virreinal (Barcelona, 2004), Pérou: l’Art de Chavín aux Incas (Paris, 2006), Inca: Origine e Misteri delle Civiltà dell’Oro (Brescia, 2009), L’Or des Incas: Origines et Mystères (Paris, 2010), and Inka: Guldskatter i Bergrummet (Stockholm, 2011). The only regret one might have is that masterpieces from other European museums were not included. Ten or so might have been enough, and had they been included, this exhibition would have had no peer. Lastly, and this is not unimportant, it should be pointed out that this is the first exhibition ever devoted entirely to Chavín de Huántar, one of the major ceremonial centers of the northern Peruvian Andes. In the late phase of the Formative Period (a two thousand-year period during which cultural characteristics of civilizations that subsequently flourished, including Chavín, appeared), this place exercised hegemony over a large part of the Peruvian region, both in cultural and religious terms. It was particularly influential between 390 and 200 BC. Striking Works and Efficient Display These exceptional organizational qualities are not the only ones to which the Rietberg’s exhibition can lay claim. It features a substantial 173 pieces that together offer an all-encompassing overview of the art of Chavín de Huántar (900–200 BC) as well as of other middle and
I-IVCoverE_CoverF Vuvi
To see the actual publication please follow the link above