Pedestal Plate with Iguanas800–1000 CE

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Title: Pedestal Plate with Iguanas
Culture: Greater Coclé
Place Made: Panama, Herrera or Los Santos Province
Date Made: 800–1000 CE
Style: Macaracas
Medium: Engobe-painted earthenware
Dimensions: Overall (Diameter): 8 1/4 × 10 in. (20.96 × 25.4 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Alan Grinnell and Feelie Lee
Accession Number: M.2016.348.28
Classification: Ceramics
Collecting Area: Art of the Ancient Americas
Curatorial Notes: As cold-blooded animals, iguanas rely on heat from the sun to warm their bodies and enable them to move, which is why they can often be observed basking in sunshine. It is unsurprising, then, that ancient Panamanians seem to have associated iguanas with the sun, the life-giving force. This plate features both an upright and inverted version of the same iguana image, which may reference the two phases of the sun: one as it traverses the sky by day, the other as it returns east by traveling through the underworld at night. That said, rotational symmetry is a common feature in Indigenous Panamanian art of the Macaracas style.

Julia Burtenshaw

2018

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Title: Pedestal Plate with Iguanas
Culture: Greater Coclé
Place Made: Panama, Herrera or Los Santos Province
Date Made: 800–1000 CE
Style: Macaracas
Medium: Engobe-painted earthenware
Dimensions: Overall (Diameter): 8 1/4 × 10 in. (20.96 × 25.4 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Alan Grinnell and Feelie Lee
Accession Number: M.2016.348.28
Classification: Ceramics
Collecting Area: Art of the Ancient Americas
Curatorial Notes: As cold-blooded animals, iguanas rely on heat from the sun to warm their bodies and enable them to move, which is why they can often be observed basking in sunshine. It is unsurprising, then, that ancient Panamanians seem to have associated iguanas with the sun, the life-giving force. This plate features both an upright and inverted version of the same iguana image, which may reference the two phases of the sun: one as it traverses the sky by day, the other as it returns east by traveling through the underworld at night. That said, rotational symmetry is a common feature in Indigenous Panamanian art of the Macaracas style.

Julia Burtenshaw

2018