In addition to the wide range of Mississippian material, the North American gallery also features objects from ancient Southwest cultures. A large olla beautifully painted with repeating black spirals and stepped-fret motifs demonstrates the artistic achievements of the Ancestral 80 Pueblo of northern Arizona and New Mexico. Six Mimbres bowls (fig. 20), acquired by the museum in 1944 from the notorious Colonel Fain White King, highlight the range of geometric and representational forms found on ceramic vessels. Two separate galleries showcase the cultures of Central and South America. Of special note is an extremely rare wooden duho, or ritual seat, made by a Taino artist and collected by a Saint Louis businessman in the 1860s (fig. 22). First published by Walter Fewkes in 1919 and immediately recognized as a masterpiece of its type, the object was acquired from the collection of the Missouri History Museum in May’s honor in 1981. Based on recently published research by Joanna Ostapkowicz of the National Museums Liverpool, the duho probably dates to the first years of the fifteenth century and was carved from a single bifurcated branch of the incredibly hard and dense tropical hardwood guaiacum. Several gold pectorals and zoomorphic pendants from the Tairona and Calima of Colombia are also on display in this gallery (figs. 23 and 24). The Andean gallery features a variety of objects, including beautifully decorated ceramic vessels with feline iconography from the early Paracas culture (fig. 21) and delicate silver and gold objects from the Chimu and Inka FIG. 23 (above left): Pectoral. Calima; Colombia. Yotoco period, C. AD 500. Gold. H: 29 cm. Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of Morton D. May, inv. #218:1979 FIG. 24 (top): Frog pendant. Chiriquí; Costa Rica. AD 1300–1500. Gold. H: 6.5 cm. Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of Morton D. May, inv. #202:1978. FIG. 25 (below): Standing male figurine. Wari; Peru. AD 600–1000. Stone. H: 3.2 cm. Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of J. Lionberger Davis, inv. #167:1954. cultures (fig. 26). Some highlights of this gallery include a Moche fineline stirrup spout bottle from the site of San José de Moro (fig. 27), a unique double-chambered Wari vessel (fig. 28), and a pair of Inka wooden keros depicting intricate narrative scenes with inlaid resinous pigment (fig. 29). A Wari stone figurine (fig. 25), likely carved from turquoise, is the smallest object in the installation, measuring a little over three centimeters. With this installation, we have sought to bring to light the tremendous range and richness of the Saint Louis Art Museum’s collection of ancient American art. Beyond an opportunity to appreciate the extraordinary quality of individual works of art, the reinstallation provides visitors with an integrated perspective on the aesthetic values and achievements of the early cultures of North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean. In the course of researching the objects over the last five years, we are enormously grateful to all of the scholars and experts who generously offered their expertise on various matters, including Héctor Escobedo Ayala; Ian Brown; David Carballo; Michael D. Coe; Anita Cook; Alana Cordy-Collins; Christopher Donnan; James Economos; Virginia Fields; David Freidel; Joe Harl; Stephen D. Houston; John Kelly; Justin Kerr; Joe Kinker; Rex Koontz; Laura Kozuch; Daniel Aquino Lara; Leonardo López Lujan; Carol Mackey; Gordon McEwan; Simon Martin; Mary Miller; uan Carlos Meléndez Mollinedo; Michael O’Brien; Joanna Ostopkowicz; Joanne Pillsbury; John M. D. Pohl; Don Proulx; Emily Pulitzer; Prudence Rice; F. Kent Reilly, III; Sarahh Scher; John F. Scott; Adam Sellen; Robert Sharp; Vin Steponaitis; Javier Urcid; and Julia Zumstein. We also want to recognize the contributions of the previous curators of the collection—Philippa D. Shaplin, Lee A. Parsons, Janet Berlo, and John Nunley—for their efforts in documenting the collection through the years.
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