Finial with Long-Beaked Bird (400–1000): Art, History and Details

Finial with Long-Beaked Bird (400–1000) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Unique to Colombia's Sinú region are gold finials with sculptural images at right angles to thimble-like caps; the caps fit over the end of a staff, an emblem of rank that may have been held horizontally. This impressive finial features a dignified, long-beaked bird whose body contains a pellet that rattles when the finial moves. Sinú animal imagery is understudied but may relate to beliefs about the cosmos. For instance, contemporary natives attribute importance to birds because they have the capacity to move among different environments (air, land, water); they may have been regarded as mediators among levels of the cosmos.

Object facts

• Title: Finial with Long-Beaked Bird
• Date: 400–1000
• Culture: Isthmian Region (Colombia), Sinú (Zenú), 5th century-11th century
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: gold, cast
• Dimensions: Overall: 11.1 x 4.3 x 9.5 cm (4 3/8 x 1 11/16 x 3 3/4 in.)
• Collection: AA - Intermediate Region
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 2015.4

A detail from the museum

Birds, particularly water birds, may have been thought to travel between the different layers of the universe.

Collection credit

Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

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.