Museo de Arte Precolombino

Today I visited two museums that I missed last week due to being sick.

The first was the Museo Inka. This one was quite large but full of information. My favorite part was being able to look at a miniature version of what Machu Picchu looked like when it was in use. I also really enjoyed how they laid out all the textile patterns and their descriptions. In one part of the museum, they compared the foods individual societies harvested based on the region that they lived. It's a shame I couldn't take pictures because Their was a ton of interesting visuals.


The second museum was the Museo de Arte Precolombino. This one might be be my favorite of all that we have been to. It might be because of the perfect organization or the captivating descriptions. I loved it. Two of the sections interested me most and believe it is due to the fact that they were so unique from the typical things we have been seeing and learning about. The first was the Chimu wooden sculptures.

I think I may have staring have at stone for too long because the wood pieces were gorgeous to me. They clearly show the age of the art and have a deep layer of culture that clearly expresses the artists life. In [Figure 1], you can see that time has begun to split this sculpture. This is the result of an extended amount of time in dry conditions.

Figure 1

Most of these pieces were created for religious purposes [Figure 2 &3]. They were carved with a great deal of precision. The artists were focused on using these for ceremonial and sacrificial purposes, keeping the details simple and focused on the point.

Figure 2

Figure 3

[Figure 4] shows examples of miniature work. These pieces were carefully carved in order to depict the desired structure of each figure. Others serve as self-portraits [Figure 5]. Although to today's standards might not be considered 'beautiful,' we can safely assume that they were seen as semi-perfect figurines somewhere within the time period of 1300 to 1532 A.D.

Figure 4

Figure 5

The second group of art that caught my attention was the Nasca. These people did not focus on shapes. Instead, their use of paint and color makes them stand out among others. The forms of the pottery are not too exciting, but instead, the artist used repetition in color patterns to display his artistic ability in [Figure 6 & 7].

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8

[Figure 8] shows two bowls pained into trophy heads. Here you can see in the faces' expression that war is a serious and sometimes cruel occurrence.









The next two pieces, [Figure 9 & 10], demonstrate how intricate the Nasca art can be. Each of these have very fine lines that were done with a steady hand. the repetition gives each bowl a sense of balance. The people experimented with pattern and consistency in a large portion of their artwork [Figure 11, 12, &13]

Figure 9

Figure 10

Figure 11

Figure 12

Figure 13

In [Figure 14], you can see how much they focused on paint rather than the shape of the ceramic. The fish exists solely in color and has almost nothing to do with the roundness of the bowl other than a 180 degree rotation and slight movement. This idea is repeated in [Figure 15]. The peppers are either transitional or a combination of transitional and reflective. The shape of each bowl has very little to do with the paint.

Figure 14

Figure 15

In [Figure 16, 17, & 18], you can clearly see the detail that goes into some of the Nasca ceramics. The control and precision is evident in the tight details of the artwork.

Figure 16

Figure 17

Figure 18