Finial with Two Deer (400–1000): Art, History and Details

Finial with Two Deer (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 two deer (or a single creature with two deer heads) that hold human-like hands over their chests. 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 Two Deer
• Date: 400–1000
• Culture: Isthmian Region (Colombia), Sinú (Zenú), 5th century-11th century
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: gold, cast
• Dimensions: Overall: 6.8 x 4.3 x 7.4 cm (2 11/16 x 1 11/16 x 2 15/16 in.)
• Collection: AA - Intermediate Region
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 2015.5

A detail from the museum

This exquisite finial was made using the lost-wax casting process.

Collection credit

Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016.
• Bergh, Susan E. “Acquisitions 2015: Pre-Columbian and Native North American Art.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 56, no. 2 (March/April 2016): 32-33.

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.