Filagree Pendant in the Form of a Frog or Toad
Coclé (Venado Beach, Coclé province, Panama)
500–1000
- Medium
- Cast gold
- Classification
- Metalwork
- Dimensions
- H.: 18.3 cm (7 3/16 in.)
- Culture
- Venado Beach
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of the Americas
- Credit line
- Wirt D. Walker Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Throughout the ancient Americas, the animal world was closely linked to social hierarchies and obligations. In this worldview, frogs were seen as callers of water in connection with the onset of the rainy season, suggesting a ruler’s ultimate responsibility to the community to virtually ensure the continuity of the agricultural cycle.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
