Permanent Collection
Art of the Ancient American
Numbering over 2,400 works, the Lowe’s Ancient and Native American Collection is the only comprehensive collection of its type in the region. It includes ceramics, textiles, wood, and metal artifacts that span the habitation of the Western hemisphere from as early as the Olmec and Valdivian cultures through the Maya and Aztec. The Andean Collection is particularly well represented and includes material culture from Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
Maya (Mexico)
Moon Goddess, 600-900
pottery and pigment, 7 1/8 x 3 3/4 x 2"
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Allan A. Kaplan, 85.0067
The Island of Jaina off the Campeche coast served as the most important Maya cemetary yet found. Large numbers of mold-made statues and whistles have been retrieved. The mold-made front was often completed with a plain back. Small rattles or whistles like this hollow rattle figure of an elaborately dressed woman may have been used for festival events or to announce the deceased to the Underworld. Scrupulous attention to detail enhances the realism of these figurines. Similarities in modelling indicate contact with the Late Classic Nopiloa of Central Veracruz.
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Jama-Coaque (Coastal Ecuador)
Vessel, 400 BCE-500 CE
pottery and pigment, 11 1/4 x 10 3/8 x 10 1/4"
Gift of Friends of Art in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Bischoff, 93.0009
A great variety of vessels from the Jama-Coaque area of the northern coast of Ecuador await investigation by scholars. This relatively early culture created elegant naturalistic figures with elaborate costumes and ornamentation applied in layers.
The Chone style is characterized by the use of green and yellow paint on mold-made objects such as whistles, figures, and rattles. The graceful flaps behind the ears of the figure on this vessel may refer to bird-men images also common to the area. Other representations include grotesque anthropomorphic beings and men and women in feather costumes. The figural vessels served as tomb guardians amidst other offerings that accompanied the dead in burial. The mythical attributes of costume are symbols in a communication system between humans and deities in life and in death. |
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Chavín (North-Central Highlands, Peru)
Stirrup-spout Bottle, 1000-200 BCE
pottery and cinnabar, 10 5/8 x 6 5/8 x 8 5/8"
Museum purchase through funds from Julien Balogh, 89.0060
Peru’s first expansive civilization is named for its presumed capital, the city of Chavín de Huántar in the northern highlands. The Chavín people were contemporaries of the Olmec of Mesoamerica, and like the Olmec they worshipped a feline deity. Chavín artisans created cult images that incorporated elements from the tropical jaguar, combined with those of serpents, crocodiles, and mythical anthropomorphic creatures. Chavín pottery is usually monochromatic black with incised designs and textures that give it a solid and monumental quality.
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