Loading

Figural Pendant

1–800 CE

The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States

Colombia's Tolima region is justly famous for arrestingly abstracted figures like this one, among the largest of its kind. Such figures, worn as necklace pendants by chiefs and other elites, seem to be based on the human form. But they also incorporate animal features, often an upturned, bifurcated tail sometimes compared to that of a serpent and large, angled head appendages that may refer to animal ears or even insect antennae.

Show lessRead more
Download this artwork (provided by The Cleveland Museum of Art).
Learn more about this artwork.
  • Title: Figural Pendant
  • Date Created: 1–800 CE
  • Physical Dimensions: Overall: 29.4 x 16.2 x 1 cm (11 9/16 x 6 3/8 x 3/8 in.)
  • Provenance: (John Wise, New York, NY, sold to an American private collector), American Private Collector, American Private Collector by inheritance, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Type: Metalwork
  • Rights: CC0
  • External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/2015.1
  • Medium: gold, cast and hammered
  • Fun Fact: Pendants in the form of figures with X-shaped bodies are an iconic Tolima type.
  • Department: Art of the Americas
  • Culture: Isthmian Region (Colombia), Tolima
  • Credit Line: Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
  • Collection: AA - Intermediate Region
  • Accession Number: 2015.1
The Cleveland Museum of Art

Get the app

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Home
Discover
Play
Nearby
Favorites