Shell with Inlaid Feline
100 BCE–700 CE
- Medium
- Spondylus shell with shell, stone, and gold inlay
- Classification
- Jewelry
- Dimensions
- Overall: 7.5 x 7.4 cm (2 15/16 x 2 15/16 in.)
- Culture
- Peru, South Coast, Nasca
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Art of the Americas
- Credit line
- In memory of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Humphreys, gift of their daughter Helen
- 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 Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
This ornament is made of a spondylus shell, from which the exterior surface has been carved away to reveal a layer of bright orange. The pampas cat inlaid on the surface in multicolored shell and stone has bean-shaped spots on his body, and grasps a gold gourd or fruit. In both Paracas and Nasca art, the small, non-domesticated pampas cat is strongly associated with beans and other crops. Perhaps it was thought to guard the fields from rodents and other pests.
