On view
Drum,
500–800 CE
More Context
Didactics
Made of perishable materials, this drum is remarkably well preserved. The hide of a camelid (the family of animals that includes llamas and alpacas) has been stretched taut over a wooden-slat cylinder and secured with hide lacings. Yellow stripes ornament the sides of the drum, while complex imagery painted in polychrome adorns the gessoed top and bottom skins. One side of the drum, seen here, presents a warrior holding two staffs, each of which end in additional trophy heads; the other side is ringed with trophy heads. The warrior figure consists of a combination of sharp, angular forms and flowing, curvaceous limbs. He wears a tunic with a decorated neck ornament, a kilt, striped wrappings around his legs, a crown or hat on his head, and feather decorations on his arms. The visual activity of this side of the drum recalls the vibrations and sounds of such an instrument when struck. This example, however, was probably never played, as the paint and gesso surely would have deteriorated. It thus was made most likely as a funerary offering.
Information
500–800 CE
South America, Peru
By February 9, 1995, Philip M. Holstein Jr. [1]; 1997, gift to the Princeton University Art Museum.
Notes:
[1] Holstein lent the work to the exhibition Objects of Andean Royalty, Aspen Art Museum, February 9 – April 9, 1995.
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1997," in "A Window into Collecting American Folk Art: The Edward Duff Balken Collection at Princeton," special issue, Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 57, no. 1/2 (1998): p. 164-208., pp. 205–206
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 141 (illus.)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), pg. 308
