Bat-Nosed Figures Pendant (1000–1550): Art, History and Details

Bat-Nosed Figures Pendant (1000–1550) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Both pendants depict paired figures with tusklike noses. The "tusks" perhaps refer to the upswept nose of the leaf-nosed bat, an agile hunter whose "leaf" helps it to snatch prey from midair. The bat's success as a hunter is part of the reason that some identify such paired figures as warriors. They each hold a paddle-shaped object; the larger pair, in elaborate costumes, also clutches staffs.

Object facts

• Title: Bat-Nosed Figures Pendant
• Date: 1000–1550
• Culture: Panama, Azuero Peninsula, Parita style, 11th-16th century
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: cast gold
• Dimensions: Overall: 4.2 x 8.1 x 1.6 cm (1 5/8 x 3 3/16 x 5/8 in.)
• Collection: AA - Intermediate Region
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1951.153

Collection credit

Thirty-fifth anniversary gift of Mrs. Albert Ingalls

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisitions Press Release,” August 15, 1951, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.