|
HOME :
Pre-Columbian Art :
Chimu Art : Chimu Stone Wall Appliqué
|
 |
|
|
|
Chimu Stone Wall Appliqué - PF.0762
Origin: Northern Coast of Peru
Circa: 900
AD
to 1200
AD
Dimensions:
3.75" (9.5cm) high
Catalogue: V2
Collection: Pre-Columbian
Style: Chimu
Medium: Stone
Additional Information: Currently in Korea_ 2020.05.14
$1,500.00
Location: United States
|
|
|
| Photo Gallery |
|
|
| Description |
|
The Chimu culture arose around 800
A.D. and
flourished until the Incan conquest
about six
hundred years later. Their
civilization was
centered at their capital Chan Chan,
about 300
miles north of Lima, literally meaning
“Sun Sun,”
the largest Pre-Columbian city in Peru
estimated
to contain almost one hundred thousand
citizens.
The Chimu believed the sea, which they
called
“Ni,” was the origin of life, a
theory also
proposed by modern science and
evolution.
Thanks to their sea-faring skills, the
Chimu were
able to survive, nestled in between
the desert
and the sea. The sea was everything to
them: an
endless supply of food and the source
of
inspiration for their most imaginative
myths,
legends, and artwork. Agriculture was
also vital,
and the Chimu drew up a vast number of
irrigation works demonstrating immense
engineering skill, some of which are
still in use
today. Today, aside from the
astounding mud
ruins of Chan Chan remarkably well
preserved in
the heat of the desert, the Chimú are
perhaps
best known for their distinctive black
glazed
pottery influenced by their
predecessors: the
Moche.
This highly stylized Chimu animal head
has a
dowel attached for insertion into a
wall. The
animal, perhaps a jaguar, has bulging
round eyes
and a ferociously grinning mouth with
prominent
fangs. In spite of its abstract
symmetry, or
perhaps because of it, this sculpture
has the
haunting, ominous presence of
something
glimpsed fleetingly in a nightmare, a
denizen of
the darkest part of the jungle.
- (PF.0762)
|
| |
|
