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Forehead Ornament
100 BC-700
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
Nasca figures, like one on a bowl nearby, are shown wearing such forehead ornaments and mouth masks similar to these. The mouth mask hung from the nasal septum, the oval opening surrounding the mouth and the bristles positioned as feline whiskers, here transformed to serpents. Both were cut from sheet gold; details were worked freehand while the sheet rested on a soft surface.
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Details
- Title: Forehead Ornament
- Date Created: 100 BC-700
- Physical Dimensions: Overall: 27.4 x 9.3 cm (10 13/16 x 3 11/16 in.)
- Provenance: Raymond Henry Norweb [1894-1983] and Emery May Holden Norweb [1895-1984], Cleveland OH, 1940, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Type: Jewelry
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1940.509
- Medium: hammered gold alloy
- Fun Fact: <em>Tumbaga</em> is an alloy made by blending gold with copper, which may give the gold a rosy hue.
- Department: Art of the Americas
- Culture: Peru, South Coast, Nasca style (100 BC-AD 700)
- Credit Line: The Norweb Collection
- Collection: AA - Andes
- Accession Number: 1940.509
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