On view
Art of the Ancient Americas
Aquilla (metal beaker),
850–1300
Lambeyeque
Late Intermediate Period
2019-233
The use of metal to produce drinking vessels came relatively late to the Andes—around the ninth century CE among the Lambeyeque and Chimú peoples of Peru’s north coast, where gold and silver beakers have been found in massive quantities in lavish graves. The beakers may have been made in pairs, as had been common in the production of wooden keros, ceremonial vessels for fermented ritual drinks. The sets may have served to cement relations between two individuals and the polities they represented, although their placement in tombs is more suggestive of grand feasts than intimate, focal toasts. The aquillas displayed here were produced from sheets of metal, carefully hammered to form seamless vessels with impressively thin walls. At some point near the end of the process, designs were added in relief by repoussé or chasing techniques.
Information
Title
Aquilla (metal beaker)
Dates
850–1300
Medium
Gold
Dimensions
h. 13, diam. 11.2 cm (5 1/8 × 4 7/16 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Peter Jay Sharp, Class of 1952, Fund
Object Number
2019-233
Place Made
South America, Peru, Lambayeque, North Coast, probably Batán Grande
Culture
Period
Type
Materials
Subject
By March 1964, Paul A. Clifford and Paul R. Cheesman, Miami [1]; by May 1985, Jan Mitchell (1913-2009), New York [2]; 2017, acquired from the Mitchell Estate by David Bernstein Fine Art, New York; 2019, sold to the Princeton University Art Museum.
Notes:
[1] According to Gold Before Columbus (Los Angeles: LACMA, 1964), pp. 70-71, cat. 202, ill.
[2] Elizabeth P. Benson, ed., The Art of Precolumbian Gold: The Jan Mitchell Collection (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985), pp. 226-227, cat. 73, ill., the right beaker.
