Pre-Columbian, South America, Colombia, Muisca, ca. 1000 to 1550 CE. Expertly cast via the lost wax (cire perdue) process, a 10K gold stylized nude male figure presenting details of his face, arms, genitals, legs, and feet either in the round or comprised of flat wirelike elements. His expressive visage features coffee bean shaped eyes, a straight nose, and a coffee bean shaped mouth. Though nude, he is decorated with ear spools, an enormous nose ring, a necklace, a multistrand belt, and a headband with ties falling over his shoulders on the back side. His arms bend at the wrists and an object, perhaps a staff, is held in his right hand. Size: 1.875" H (4.8 cm); 2.625" H (6.7 cm) on included custom stand. Weight: 9.7 grams.

Julie Jones' "The Art of Precolumbian Gold" discusses Muisca gold tunjos as follows: "Human images are the most common type of Muisca tunjo, the class of metal objects found in the high Andes around Bogota, the present capital of Colombia, established by the Spaniards in 1539.The figures were used as votive objects; they were always differentiated by sex, and a great amound of specific detail was worked into them. Mothers and children, warriors, and coca chewers are common tunjo representations. Published information on the specific groupings of the objects as they were cached - the chief manner of offering - is scant. The Museo del Oro in Bogota has documented a good-sized group said to be the contents of a cache that was found shallowly buried in an open field in Funza, Cundinamarca . . ."

Jones continues with a discussion of Muisca goldsmithing techniques and practices, "Muisca tunjos were not worked after casting. Flaws were not corrected, excess metal was not removed, surfaces were not polished; they were left as they came out of the mold. Even molding sprues could remain. . . The spontaneity of manufacture plus the artistic means . . . and the manner in which they were used, set the Muisca tunjos apart from other Precolumbian gold objects." (Ed. Julie Jones, "The Art of Precolumbian Gold: The Jan Mitchell Collection." Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1985, p. 166)

Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection; ex Laurence Witten Collection, Florida, USA

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#131964

Minute casting flaws and sprues as is consistent with Muisca technques. See discussion of these in extended description.