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Description

A representation of a raft with a dignitary seated in the center flanked by four other figures. It was Sebastian Mojano de Belalcazar, one of Pizarro's lieutenants, who heard in Quito this legendary account of a ceremony involving the Muisca lord of Guadavita, one of the smaller Muisca states that had been absorbed by a larger neighbor shortly before the Spanish conquest. Like the Inca lords, the lord of Guadavita claimed to have descended directly from the sun, and in a sacrificial ritual, adorned with all his gold jewels, he was led on a raft by four dignitaries to the center of the lake "at the top of the mountain", where he was sprinkled with gold powder, and receiving the sun's rays, he stood upright like an idol, shining brightly before the gaze of his people gathered on the shores of the lake. It was this legend, then, that motivated Mojano De Belalcazar to set out with two hundred of his intrepid and rapacious co-religionists to conquer the gold of El Dorado. André Emmerich writes: "In 1856 an extraordinary gold object was discovered in Lake Siecha, long present in German museum collections, but lost during the Second World War. It consisted of five Tunjo-type figures on a raft representing a chief and his companions". This obviously echoes the legend, but the drawing based on a photograph of the object in question, published by André Emmerich in his seminal work Sweat of The Sun and Tears of The Moon, Gold and Silver in Pre-Columbian Art (p. 88 fig. 107), does not correspond to his description of the object, but to that of a dignitary surrounded by at least nine figures on a circular raft. Our raft, on the other hand, features five figures. Could this be the famous raft described by Emmerich, or another legend? Jean Roudillon, a history enthusiast, having certainly followed this lead, had the Muisca raft in his collection tested by a laboratory specializing in the scientific analysis of ancient or supposedly ancient objets d'art. The results of these analyses appeared to be consistent with the ancient manufacturing techniques of an authentic piece and are described as such by the people who carried out the study (see this analysis report sold with the object). André Emmerich reminds us that for a long time, the watermarks on tunjos misled many authors who misrepresented the manufacturing techniques of these objects, which are in fact always cast in a single piece with no watermarks added later. Muisca, presumed period 1000 to 1550 A.D. (no guarantee), Colombia Tumbaga (alloy of gold, copper and agent) H. 4.5 and L. 6 cm See pp. 83-88 for Tunjo figurines, and p. 88 fig. 107 for a drawing of a work from the corpus lost during the war and originally in German museum collections in: Sweat of The Sun and Tears of The Moon, Gold and Silver in Pre-Columbian Art, André Emmerich, Hacker Art Book, New York 1977. See: a CIRAM analysis report, dated 02 / 08 / 2018, concordant according to its authors with ancient manufacturing techniques and compatible again according to its authors with the presumed period. Provenance : Jean Roudillon Collection

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A representation of a raft with a dignitary seated in the center flanked by four other figures. It was Sebastian Mojano de Belalcazar, one of Pizarro's lieutenants, who heard in Quito this legendary account of a ceremony involving the Muisca lord of Guadavita, one of the smaller Muisca states that had been absorbed by a larger neighbor shortly before the Spanish conquest. Like the Inca lords, the lord of Guadavita claimed to have descended directly from the sun, and in a sacrificial ritual, adorned with all his gold jewels, he was led on a raft by four dignitaries to the center of the lake "at the top of the mountain", where he was sprinkled with gold powder, and receiving the sun's rays, he stood upright like an idol, shining brightly before the gaze of his people gathered on the shores of the lake. It was this legend, then, that motivated Mojano De Belalcazar to set out with two hundred of his intrepid and rapacious co-religionists to conquer the gold of El Dorado. André Emmerich writes: "In 1856 an extraordinary gold object was discovered in Lake Siecha, long present in German museum collections, but lost during the Second World War. It consisted of five Tunjo-type figures on a raft representing a chief and his companions". This obviously echoes the legend, but the drawing based on a photograph of the object in question, published by André Emmerich in his seminal work Sweat of The Sun and Tears of The Moon, Gold and Silver in Pre-Columbian Art (p. 88 fig. 107), does not correspond to his description of the object, but to that of a dignitary surrounded by at least nine figures on a circular raft. Our raft, on the other hand, features five figures. Could this be the famous raft described by Emmerich, or another legend? Jean Roudillon, a history enthusiast, having certainly followed this lead, had the Muisca raft in his collection tested by a laboratory specializing in the scientific analysis of ancient or supposedly ancient objets d'art. The results of these analyses appeared to be consistent with the ancient manufacturing techniques of an authentic piece and are described as such by the people who carried out the study (see this analysis report sold with the object). André Emmerich reminds us that for a long time, the watermarks on tunjos misled many authors who misrepresented the manufacturing techniques of these objects, which are in fact always cast in a single piece with no watermarks added later. Muisca, presumed period 1000 to 1550 A.D. (no guarantee), Colombia Tumbaga (alloy of gold, copper and agent) H. 4.5 and L. 6 cm See pp. 83-88 for Tunjo figurines, and p. 88 fig. 107 for a drawing of a work from the corpus lost during the war and originally in German museum collections in: Sweat of The Sun and Tears of The Moon, Gold and Silver in Pre-Columbian Art, André Emmerich, Hacker Art Book, New York 1977. See: a CIRAM analysis report, dated 02 / 08 / 2018, concordant according to its authors with ancient manufacturing techniques and compatible again according to its authors with the presumed period. Provenance : Jean Roudillon Collection

Estimate 1 200 - 1 500 EUR

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