Penn Museum Shows Conquistadors and Arts of the New World

Written by Aaron Tavarez Friday, 20 May 2011 21:41

Philadelphia, PA - Tales abound of Spaniards’ arrival in the “New World,” of the plunder of vast stores of exquisitely crafted Native American golden treasures, often melted for their gold ore, and the destruction of other artistic and cultural treasures.  Yet native art traditions did survive.  Native artists continued to work, and the objects they produced beguiled European eyes for centuries to come.

Under European Eyes: Conquistadors and Arts of the New World, a new display at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, features a dazzling array of more than 40 ancient native Mexican, Central and South American artifacts, selected to reveal how European conquerors perceived of, influenced, and were influenced by the arts of their new subjects.  The large display, a temporary centerpiece of the second floor Main Foyer, is on view through February 26, 2007.

Under European Eyes was developed to complement the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s major special exhibition, “Treasures/Tesoros/Tesouros: The Arts in Latin America, 1492-1820” (September 20 through December 31, 2006).

 Objects from Penn Museum’s rich American collections are featured in Under European Eyes.  Included are gold necklaces, earrings, breastplates, a gold and emerald jaguar pendant from Panama, a sculpture of an Aztec deity from Mexico, a quipu--an Andean record-keeping device of complex knotted strings, and brightly colored featherwork from Peru.  Texts and illustrations from works of the period convey how Spaniards acquired, interpreted, and valued indigenous works of art.

Dr. Nancy Farriss, Annenberg Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert in Latin American indigenous cultures, is curator of Under European Eyes.

Penn Museum’s Mesoamerican Gallery, located nearby, offers visitors a more in-depth opportunity to explore the artistic and cultural traditions of the Mayan people and other native American groups of Mexico and Central America before the arrival of Columbus and the Europeans.  This gallery features famous Maya stelae, or stone monuments, from the sites of Caracol, Belize and Piedras Negras, Guatemala, elegant Chama painted pottery, ornaments of jade, shell, obsidian, jaguar teeth and claws, and much more.

The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is dedicated to the study and understanding of human history and diversity.  Founded in 1887, the Museum has sent more than 400 archaeological and anthropological expeditions to all the inhabited continents of the world.  Penn Museum is located at 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104.  Visit: www.museum.upenn.edu/