Moche Mask, Loma Negra | Gilded Sheet Metal, Dangles

Pre-Columbian, Peru, Early Moche, Loma Negra, ca. 500–100 BCE. A gilded sheet-metal face hammered into a broad trapezoidal plaque, its features raised from behind: lozenge eyes with domed pupils, a rectangular mouth set with a row of squared teeth, and a separately formed tubular nose riveted to the surface. Three tapered danglers hang along each edge, and five rows of small staple-like tabs pierce the sheet, once anchoring further danglers that would have rattled and flashed with every movement of the wearer. Small paired holes at top and bottom served for attachment. Masks of this kind were mortuary regalia, likely lashed to the wrapped bundle or headdress of an elite burial, where gilded copper stood as the sun's own metal. Size: 8" W x 7" H (20.3 cm W x 17.8 cm H).

The Loma Negra material, recovered in the far north of Peru's coastal Piura valley, forms the earliest and most technically inventive body of Moche metalwork known. Its smiths mastered depletion gilding, a chemical process in which copper is leached from the surface of a copper-gold alloy to leave a skin of nearly pure gold, allowing a modest quantity of precious metal to clothe a large object entirely. The result was ideologically potent: on the north coast, gold was bound to the sun and to the person of the ruler, and burnished metal glinting with mobile danglers translated that solar authority into something audible and kinetic during ceremony.

Loma Negra pieces are frequently distinguished by their hybrid construction, in which separately worked components (noses, ears, tongues, appliques) are riveted or stapled to a hammered ground rather than cast in one piece, a hallmark visible here in the applied nose and the surviving rows of tabs.

Provenance: Ex. H. J. Westermann collection, Germany, active 1950’s - 1960’s.

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Item #

73182

Condition
Retaining most of the original gilt surface. Five rows of ancient "staples" which possibly held additional dangles, now missing. Scattered areas of blue-green surface patina, being quite strong on the reverse. Two small attachment holes at both the top and bottom edges. Unrestored and very rare.

Buyer's Premium
30%