Birds and Fish Mola Panels (Pair) (1900s): Art, History and Details

Birds and Fish Mola Panels (Pair) (1900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

These two, nearly identical panels were created by a female artist of the Guna, an Indigenous people of the Republic of Panamá. Originally, they were stitched into the front or back of a blouse (mola). Such blouses are so distinctive to the Guna that they are the single most recognizable element of Guna cultural identity.

Object facts

• Title: Birds and Fish Mola Panels (Pair)
• Date: 1900s
• Culture: Republic of Panamá, Gunayala Comarca, Guna people
• Type: Garment
• Technique: Cotton; reverse appliqué, appliqué, embroidery
• Dimensions: Overall: 46.4 x 34.3 cm (18 1/4 x 13 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Textiles
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 2021.155

A detail from the museum

Such panels originally were sewn into blouses known as molas.

Collection credit

Gift of Cathy Lincoln

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.