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Pendant
Tolima
A.D. 1–550
Object Place: Magdalena River Valley, Department of Tolima, Colombia
Medium/Technique
Gold
Dimensions
Overall: 18.4 x 10.2 x 1.6 cm (7 1/4 x 4 x 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
John H. and Ernestine A. Payne Fund
Accession Number1975.35
ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment – Pendants
Tolima artists created unusually flat and abstract pectorals based on the human form. They may depict supernatural beings, shamans in their flight to the supernatural realm, or symbolic manifestations of religious beliefs.
DescriptionLarge pendant rendering an abstract anthropomorphic being merged with zoomorphic elements that include wing-like arms and a bifurcated tail. The pendant may represent a shaman or supernatural being.
ProvenanceBy 1908, collected in Colombia by Joaquin Arciniégas (b. 1865 - d. 1930), San José, Costa Rica and San Salvador, El Salvador; August 6, 1929, sold in San Salvador by Arciniégas to his brother-in-law, José Daniel Villatoro Rugama (b. 1887 - d. 1958), San Salvador; January 10, 1930, sold by Rugama to Oliverio Girondo (b. 1891 - d. 1967), Paris and Argentina. January 2, 1975, sold by Leon Buki (dealer), Buenos Aires, through Marcelo Buki, to Alphonse Jax (dealer), New York; 1975, sold by Alphonse Jax to the MFA. (Accession Date: March 12, 1975)
NOTE: The Arciniégas collection (MFA accession nos. 1975.35 - 1975.273) was offered to the Museum in 1975, accompanied by documentation of its ownership by Joaquin Arcienégas as early as 1908; photographs of it in the Arciniégas collection; and receipts for the collection’s sale in 1929 and 1930. Arciniégas had the collection in Costa Rica by 1908 and El Salvador by 1916; he asked his brother-in-law to sell the collection, and it was shipped to Paris for sale in December 1930/January 1931.
NOTE: The Arciniégas collection (MFA accession nos. 1975.35 - 1975.273) was offered to the Museum in 1975, accompanied by documentation of its ownership by Joaquin Arcienégas as early as 1908; photographs of it in the Arciniégas collection; and receipts for the collection’s sale in 1929 and 1930. Arciniégas had the collection in Costa Rica by 1908 and El Salvador by 1916; he asked his brother-in-law to sell the collection, and it was shipped to Paris for sale in December 1930/January 1931.