Pectoral Ornament (c. 1200–1519): Art, History and Details

Pectoral Ornament (c. 1200–1519) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This extraordinary pendant consists of a conch shell section carved in jade, enclosed in a delicate gold frame with tiny dangling bells. This symbol was worn by the deity Quetzalcoatl (Feathered Serpent), a culture hero credited in one myth with creating human life by sprinkling his blood on ground bones. The pectoral may have been worn by a priest, or by a ceremonial impersonator of Quetzalcoatl.

Object facts

• Title: Pectoral Ornament
• Date: c. 1200–1519
• Culture: Mexico, Guerrero, Ichcatiopan, Mixtec or Aztec style
• Type: Jewelry
• Technique: gold, jadeite
• Dimensions: Overall: 8 x 7.2 cm (3 1/8 x 2 13/16 in.)
• Collection: AA - Mesoamerica
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1983.190

Collection credit

Gift of James C. Gruener in memory of his wife, Florence Crowell Gruener

Further reading listed by the museum

• Turner, Evan H. "Year in Review for 1983." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 71, no. 2 (1984): 38-79.
• Young-Sánchez, Margaret. "The Gruener Collection of Pre-Columbian Art." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 79, no. 7 (1992): 234-75.

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.