Double Bird-Headed Figure Pendant (c. 1000–1500): Art, History and Details

Double Bird-Headed Figure Pendant (c. 1000–1500) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Among the pendants shown here are a crustacean (1943.290), an animal-headed figure (1948.18), and two pendants featuring birds (1951.442 and 1946.223). The latter were dubbed aguilas (eagles) by Christopher Columbus, who saw natives wearing them as necklace ornaments. Modern researchers are not as sure of the species shown, but some believe that they are birds of prey because talons and beaks are prominent and often clutch something, in one example here a small, disembodied head that holds a clapper. In both examples, two tufts in the form of crocodiles in profile flank the birds’ heads.

Object facts

• Title: Double Bird-Headed Figure Pendant
• Date: c. 1000–1500
• Culture: Costa Rica, Diquís region, 11th-16th century
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: cast and hammered gold
• Dimensions: Overall: 7.2 x 9.4 cm (2 13/16 x 3 11/16 in.)
• Collection: AA - Intermediate Region
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1951.442

Collection credit

Thirty-fifth anniversary gift in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Humphreys, Gift of their daughter, Helen

Further reading listed by the museum

• Correspondence from Samuel Lothrop to William Milliken, 18 December 1951, Box 26, Folder 9, William Mathewson Milliken Records, 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.