1986.36 Mirror (Peru, Cupisnique) | DMA Staging Content Management System

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

Among the relatively few objects in the limited category of things that are at once magical, aesthetic, and technological is the mirror. In addition to its sharing of all these qualities in the Chinese and Japanese traditions, the mirror had a similar multivalency in the pre-Columbian New World. Mirrors were used by each of the base cultures of Mesoamerica and the Andes, including the Olmec and Chavín. This example is representative of one Chavín mirror type, and the form is similar to other known examples. Anthracite is found as a raw material in the Jequetepeque and Chicama valleys on Peru's north coast. Anthracite mirrors were highly polished to reflect a sharp, dark image and often accompanied the dead at Cupisnique sites.

Adapted from

Label text [1976.W.1792], A. H. Meadows Galleries.
John Lunsford, DMA unpublished material, 1986.

NOTES

Cupisnique, 1000–500 B.C.E., updated by KJones on 10/15/13 and 09/06/16.
General Description drawn from: DMA Label Copy (1976.W.1792), n.d.; DMA unpublished material [John Lunsford, Acquisition Checklist (1986.36), dated May 27, 1986, Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records Object File, Confidential].

Catalogue essays

Artist/designers

Cultures

Cupisnique

Chavín horizon: AAT: 300017269

Cupisnique (Coast Chavin): AAT: 30017270

Geography

Andes (South America)

Peru (nation): TGN: 1000056

Process/materials

Anthracite

anthracite (coal): AAT: 300015140

carving: AAT: 300053149

polishing (finishing): AAT: 300053867

burnishing (polishing): AAT: 30053869

Historical periods

Initial period (Pre-Columbian Andean styles and periods): AAT: 300017264

Subject terms

Individuals

mirrors: AAT: 300037682

ritual objects: AAT: 300312158

funerary objects: AAT: 300234126

black (color): AAT: 300130920

shiny: AAT: 300065244

shine: AAT: 300065244

RELATED OBJECTS

PROVENANCE

Until 1986: Marietta and William Ransone, Dallas [1]

From 1986: Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Marietta and William Ransone [1], [2], [3]

[1] The main source for this provenance is letter from I.C. Deal, Chairman of the Dallas Museum of Art Acquisitions Committee to Mr. and Mrs. William Ransone (dated June 27, 1986, copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records Object File, Confidential). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.

[2] The main source for this provenance is Acquisition Record (dated June 04, 1986, copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records Object File, Confidential). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.

[3] The main source for this provenance is Deed of Gift (dated June 04, 1986, copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records Object File, Confidential). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.

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RULES

Apply to objects where number equals 1986.36

General Description

Among the relatively few objects in the limited category of things that are at once magical, aesthetic, and technological is the mirror. In addition to its sharing of all these qualities in the Chinese and Japanese traditions, the mirror had a similar multivalency in the pre-Columbian New World. Mirrors were used by each of the base cultures of Mesoamerica and the Andes, including the Olmec and Chavín. This example is representative of one Chavín mirror type, and the form is similar to other known examples. Anthracite is found as a raw material in the Jequetepeque and Chicama valleys on Peru's north coast. Anthracite mirrors were highly polished to reflect a sharp, dark image and often accompanied the dead at Cupisnique sites.