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HOME :
Pre-Columbian Art :
Chimu Art : Chimu Silver Bowl
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Chimu Silver Bowl - PF.1111
Origin: Northern Coast of Peru
Circa: 800
AD
to 1400
AD
Collection: Pre-Columbian
Medium: Silver
$6,000.00
Location: United States
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| Description |
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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.
Chimu aristocrats ruled a vast mountain empire
surrounded by objects of splendid rarity and
beauty. When a great lord died, he was buried
amidst piles of treasure, so that his noble rank
and privileges would continue in the afterlife.
This silver bowl, perhaps used at an aristocrat's
table, has an elegant shape that appeals to the
contemporary eye. It is ornamented, however,
with a rather startling motif. The human faces
that adorn the upper rim represent the severed
heads of enemy warriors. This juxtaposition of
horror and beauty, of splendor and barbarity,
epitomizes the spirit of the entire Chimu world.
- (PF.1111)
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