Oil on Cardboard 37.2x55.2cm

Study of Pre-Columbian masks from Bogotá. Anthropomorphic mask with ear-ornament, made of gold by hammering and embossing. The nostrils and eyes are open. It was probably a funerary mask of a high status personage; fastening holes around the edge might have been used to attach it to a cloth or another material. The feather head dress depicts the high status of this tribal lord. Lifesize hammered masks are the largest objects produced in gold in the ancient Americas. While most masks were presumably made as burial offerings, this example could have been worn by an individual during life in a ritual or ceremony before being placed with his material wealth in a tomb. The mask comes from the Calima River region in southwestern Colombia, where abundant alluvial gold deposits prompted a distinguished goldworking tradition that lasted for at least 2,000 years. Hammered from a single sheet of metal of high carat.