On view
Thin-bladed knife with finial depicting human and feline,
600–800
Mochica Metalworking
The Mochica were ingenious experimenters with the technologies of metalworking. Building on earlier traditions of hammering and soldering thin sheets of silver or gold, the Mochica added lost-wax casting of bronze as well as a technique known as depletion gilding (and silvering). Using naturally occurring acids, Mochica metalworkers could remove copper from the surface of metal objects that also contained gold or silver, leaving a thin layer of these more prized materials. Gold and silver were generally reserved for jewelry and other objects for the highest-ranking individuals, while copper alloys were more common among lower-ranking groups.
More Context
Handbook Entry
Although traditionally interpreted as scepters or coca-snuffing "spatulas," chisel-shaped objects such as this more likely served as bloodletters in sacrificial rites. Made from a copper alloy, this piece is comprised of a flat blade, a short handle, and an elaborate finial presenting interaction between two supernatural characters. One is an anthropomorphic deity with a serpent-tail and a feline headdress. His left hand gestures toward the other figure, while the right wields an atlatl (spear-thrower) and a dart. He faces an anthropomorphic feline who wears a large back-rack with a pair of human heads dangling from the upper structure. In ceremony, Mochica actors would often don the costumes of deities; the feline and atlatl-wielder on this chisel are thus either the supernaturals themselves or the ritual practitioners in costume. Presumably, these chisels were used to pierce the jugular of a sacrificial victim; the blood was then collected in a cup or bowl for offertory consumption before the victim was decapitated.
More About This Object
Information
600–800
South America, Peru, North coast
Said to have been purchased from Louis Slavitz (1907-1992; dealer), New York [1]; by 1969, Sue and John Tishman collection, New York [2]; passed to Sue Tishman (-2005); passed to her estate; March 2007, purchased by the David Bernstein Fine Art, New York (M7050) [3]; October 13, 2009, sold to the Princeton University Art Museum.
Notes:
[1] According to personal communication between David Bernstein, Robert Sonin, and Bryan Just, 2009. It was also said this purchase was on the advice of Junius Bird.
[2] This object was included in the 1969 exhibition Pre-Columbian Art in New York: Selections from Private Collections, The Museum of Primitive Art, New York, cat. no. 249, loaned by Mr. and Mrs. John Tishman.
[3] According to correspondence dated November 6, 2008, between John L. Tishman and David Bernstein
- Julie Jones, Pre-Columbian Art in New York: Selections from Private Collections (New York: The Museum of Primitive Art, 1969)., cat. no. 228 (illus.)
- Alan Lapiner, Pre-Columbian Art of South America (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1976)., p. 439
- Christopher Donnan, Moche Art of Peru: Pre-Columbian Symbolic Communication (Los Angeles: UCLA, Museum of Cultural History, 1978)., cat. no. 30 (illus.)
- Julie Jones, "Mochica Works of Art in Metal: A Review," in Pre-Columbian Metallurgy of South America, ed. Elizabeth P. Benson (Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1979), fig. 28 (illus.)
- Elizabeth P. Benson, "A Moche 'Spatula,'" Metropolitan Museum Journal, Metropolitan Museum of Art vol. 18 (1984): 39-52., fig. 16, pp. 39–52 (illus.)
- "Acquisitions of the Princeton University Art Museum 2009," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 69 (2010): p. 51-85., p. 62
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 279
