Ornament with Figure (600–1000): Art, History and Details

Ornament with Figure (600–1000) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Affixed to a section of white shell is the image of a Wari dignitary, assembled of carefully carved mosaic elements. The purple and pink shapes are made of shell, while the green is serpentine. The spots on the figure's tunic are probably pyrite, which was originally smooth and reflective.

Object facts

• Title: Ornament with Figure
• Date: 600–1000
• Culture: Central Andes, Wari style
• Type: Jewelry
• Technique: shell, stone, and metal (silver?)
• Dimensions: Overall: 6.6 x 3.6 cm (2 5/8 x 1 7/16 in.)
• Collection: AA - Andes
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1944.291

Collection credit

In memory of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Humphreys, gift of their daughter Helen

Further reading listed by the museum

• Foote, Helen S. "An Ornament from the Coast of Peru." Cleveland Museum of Art. The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, March 1945.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.

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.