The Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide and the Fruits of Conversion and Iconoclasm Five striking wood carvings (figs. 1–4 and 6) obtained by Peruvian Fray Francisco Romero in 1691 from a Tairona shrine in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains and presented to Pope Innocent XII in 1692 are considered to be the founding works of the Vatican ethnological collection. They were housed in the Palazzo di Propaganda Fide and later became part of the extensive collection of Cardinal Stefano Borgia (1731–1804), who was the prefect of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide from 1798 until his death. This had been founded by Pope Gregory XV in 1622 to govern ecclesiastical affairs of the Catholic Church outside of the Vatican, specifically in countries and regions of the world that were newly “discovered” by Europeans. Within this group, a figure of a deity (fig. 1) standing with its arms upraised is carved with adornments including a headdress, a neck ornament, and armbands accentuated by pigment. The back is flat and uncarved and the bottom is now fragmentary. Some scholars believe that the figure might be represented wearing a mask itself, due to the carved areas around the eyes and the position of the arms and hands at the side of the head. It shares characteristics with other renowned Tairona figures in gold.2 The two ceremonial masks in this group (figs. 4 and 6) differ in appearance and expression. One is quite naturalistic, while the other has exaggerated features. Both would have had headdresses attached to their top ridgelines and secured through the holes. In 1984, Josef Penkowski, former director of the Vatican museum, indicated that one of the masks (fig. 4) “represents the greatgrandmother Sun, who was venerated during the drying out of the fields in preparation for their cultivation.”3 Similar masks in Berlin’s ethnographic museum were attributed to the “Kággaba” and commemorated ancestors when worn during festivals.4 The original function of the group’s two zoomorphic wooden supports (figs. 2 and 3) that take the forms of a feline with a long tail (possibly a puma) and a two-headed creature is not currently known. Both have openings at the top to provide for the positioning of another object. Their surfaces are engraved with a series of geometric shapes filled with pigment. The Tairona, who had occupied the FIG. 4 (left): Mask. Tairona, Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, Colombia. Before 1691. Wood, pigment. Conveyed by Fr. Francisco Romero to Pope Innocent XII in 1692. Ethnological Museum, Vatican, inv. #101471. Photo by Scott McCue. FIG. 5 (below): Woodcut from Francisco Romero, Llanto sagrado de la América meridional, 1693, showing the five Tairona objects in figs. 1–4 & 6. Ink on paper. Ethnological Museum, Vatican, inv. #125560.2. FIG. 6 (right): Mask. Tairona, Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, Colombia. Before 1691. Wood, pigment. Conveyed by Fr. Francisco Romero to Pope Innocent XII in 1692. Ethnological Museum, Vatican, inv. #101472. Photo by Scott McCue.
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