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Pendant
Darién or Zenú (Sinú)
San Jacinto style group
A.D. 500–1550
Object Place: Sucre or Cordoba Departments or Darién Peninsula, Colombia, Chocó region
Medium/Technique
Gold alloy
Dimensions
Overall: 18.4 x 13.8 x 2.2 cm (7 1/4 x 5 7/16 x 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds donated by Landon T. Clay
Accession Number1973.145
ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment – Pendants
The shaman's supernatural flight is symbolized by the wing-like scrolls flanking his head and the zoomorphic face suggesting his animal-spirit form. Hallucinogens from mushrooms, signified by the spheres on the head, assisted the shaman in his/her journey.
DescriptionCast gold pendant rendering a human-bat composite figure, likely a shamanic transformation, with two flute-like objects held to his mouth. The half-spheres atop the figure's head are thought to represent hallucinogenic mushrooms which assisted the spiritual transformation. See 320.1985 for a similar pendant.
Provenance1946, sold by John Wise, Ltd., New York, to George Gough Booth (b. 1864 - d. 1949) for the Museum of the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI [see note]; May 4, 1972, Cranbrook Collection sale, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, lot 218, sold to John Wise, Ltd., New York; 1973, sold by John Wise to the MFA. (Accession Date: March 14, 1973)
NOTE: The date of the sale to Booth was provided by John Wise at the time the MFA purchased the pendant. It was accessioned by the Museum of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1947 (accession no. 1947.9) and sold in 1972 to benefit the endowment fund.
NOTE: The date of the sale to Booth was provided by John Wise at the time the MFA purchased the pendant. It was accessioned by the Museum of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1947 (accession no. 1947.9) and sold in 1972 to benefit the endowment fund.