FIG. 18 (below):
Face ornaments of
Quetzalcoatl.
Maya, Sacred Cenote,
Chichen Itza, Yucatan,
Mexico. AD 800–1100.
Gold. W (mouth): 14.8 cm.
Peabody Museum of Archaeology
and Ethnology, Harvard University,
Cambridge, inv. 10-71-20/C7678 and
10-71-20/C7678.1, 2.
87
octopus fisherman off the coast of Veracruz in the
1970s (fig. 9). A small detail on the banners at the
top—the stamped letter “C” with a crown—tells
us these were part of the royal fifth and on their
way to Spain, where they surely would have been
melted down as funds needed to be raised from
royal treasuries to finance the seemingly eternal
wars in Europe and beyond.
Whether made of gold or other materials, all of
the artworks featured in Golden Kingdoms are the
exceptional, the rare, the transformative—objects
designed to provoke strong emotions, particularly
desire and wonder. To the degree possible, our assessments
of quality are based on indigenous criteria,
be it through Pre-Columbian or colonial-era
texts, archaeological contexts, or the relative technical
skill of the artists apparent in the work itself.
This exhibition is less about a normative, comprehensive
view of specific cultures and more about
innovation, excellence, and the exchanges of materials,
objects, and ideas in ancient American art.
Such an inquiry substantially expands our understanding
of the arts of the ancient Americas,
as it examines a category of arts that once thrived
in the region but that was highly vulnerable to destruction
at the time of the European invasion. Our
view of ancient American art is effectively shaped
by works in more durable materials—monumental
stone sculptures or ceramic vessels—objects
less subject to the avarice of European invaders.
As spectacular and sophisticated as these traditions
of stonecarving and ceramics were, they are
only part of what once constituted ancient American
art. The works featured in Golden Kingdoms
restore a sense of the refinement and complexity
of the visual arts of the ancient Americas—a rare
view into a lost world.
Golden Kingdoms: Luxury and Legacy in the Ancient
Americas
Through May 28, 2018
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
www.metmuseum.org
This essay was adapted from the introduction to the
exhibition catalog Golden Kingdoms: Luxury and Legacy in
the Ancient Americas
Edited by Joanne Pillsbury, Timothy Potts, and Kim N. Richter
Published in English by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the
Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, 2017
328 pages, 9.6 x 11.8 inches, illustrated in full color
throughout
ISBN-10: 1606065483
Hardcover, $59.95
NOTES
1. Translation by William Conway, 1958, 101–102; with
amendments by the author and Hanns Hubach. See also
Bleichmar and Mancall 2011 on the subject of early modern
collecting.
2. Sarmiento de Gamboa (1572) 2007, 134.
3. See Donnan 2011 for a discussion of Moche substyles; see
also Miller and Martin 2004 on Maya courts.
4. Burger 2012. In the Old World, gold is first attested between
4600 and 4200 BC at Varna, in what is now Bulgaria. In the
ancient Americas, copper was worked earlier than gold in
what is now the U.S. Midwest, and its use extended south
to Argentina and Chile. Gold had a more limited extension,
essentially from the central Andes to central Mexico, and it is
this extension that determined both the starting point and the
end point of the exhibition.
5. Lechtman 1980; 2014, 415.
6. Hosler 1994.
7. See Lechtman 2014 and Roberts and Thornton 2014 for a
comprehensive discussion of other major traditions in metal,
particularly copper and bronze, both south and north of the
region discussed here.
8. Quilter 2011, 45–75; Rehren and Temme 1994, 279.
9. Peterson 2003; see also Brumfiel 1998.
10. Evans 2000.
11. Miller 2005.
12. On occasion, certain materials could be used as “commodity
money” in transactions, such as tribute. See Hirth and
Pillsbury 2013.
13. Pillsbury 1996.
14. The destruction was both at the time of the Conquest and
in later years, as the need to raise capital for new military
campaigns increased. See Johnson 2011.
GOLDEN KINGDOMS
/www.metmuseum.org
