Art Stroll: Museum of Pre Columbian Art in Santiago, Chile

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While I was in Santiago de Chile I went to the Museum of Pre Columbian Art, which is dedicated to the study and display of pre-Columbian artworks and artifacts from Central and South America. I was surprised and happy how inspiring this visit was. It reminded me that things that were done thousands of years ago have inspired art, fabrics and patterns over and over again …

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Cultura Chorrera 1800-300 AC. These bottles are very sophisticated and just amazing.  I will take the fish bottle – thank you :)

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I loved all the details and different materials used by different cultures.

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Cultura pre-mapuche ca. 1300-1500 DC. The first Spanish observers saw Mapuche chiefs holding beautiful stone pieces in the shape of axes as symbols of the power of the war leaders. Love how this simple hatch cross pattern makes such a beautiful piece.

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San Augustin Culture 1-1500 AD – Anthropomorphic Stone Sculpture

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such a gorgeous piece!

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Figurines from ancient Ecuador. The production of clay figurines and small statues was a long pre-Columbian tradition that began 5thousand years ago on the coast of Ecuador.

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500 AC- 200 AC – those three figurines were funky cool!

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Musician, 500 AC – 500 DC – reminded me a little bit of Pinocchio

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And a lot of the artwork reminded me of the home decor of the 60s and also of course artists like Picasso come to mind.

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1-700 DC – not sure if it was a mask or what it was used

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Bottle – 300-600DC – I love this so so much!!!!

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This one was eerie and beautiful at the same time. It had no real information – not even for the time it was made.

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Diaguita Ceramics – characteristic is the minimalistic design. I love this pattern.

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This was the room with the Exhibition called Chile before Chile.

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some headgear – the fabrics were just incredible and intricate – It was breath taking actually.

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This is a Quipu also called talking knots. “Quipu were recording devices and for the Inca, the system aided in collecting data and keeping records, ranging from monitoring tax obligations, properly collecting census records, calendrical information, and military organization. The cords contained numeric and other values encoded by knots in a base ten positional system. A quipu could have only a few or up to 2,000 cords.

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Isn’t this amazing?

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More fabric- gorgeous colors.

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These wooden statues were placed on top of tombs in ancient Mapuche cemeteries. They reflect the spirit of those buried there and are to intended to assist them in their journey o the afterlife. Chiefs and great warriors were sent to the East after death to roam among the volcanoes of Kalfumapu, the “blue land” . All others went to the West, to eat bitter potatoes beyond the sea. mhhh- you sure wanted to be a great warrior- doesn’t sound like a fun outlook to have to eat bitter potatoes for afterlife to me ;)

Hope you enjoyed this pretty different art stroll ! Have a wonderful day

Comments (4)

  • Sassy

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    What fun! We visited Santiago two years ago and I took photos (not nearly as well done) as several of the items you did — great memories.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      How wonderful to hear you were there too – wasn’t it an amazing museum?! Have wonderful week!

      Reply

  • Linda Faber

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    Thanks for the gorgeous tour! What an inspiring exhibit! Those colors and designs. Loved it and guess you will add some stamps to your collection from those patterns. Yes?
    Thank you for posting your tour…I’m home recovering from a painful broken rib and have no energy to even create art…so this tour was uplifting for me. :)
    Linda

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Linda, I am so sorry to hear you broke a rib, I hope you are feeling better soon!!! Glad you enjoyed the tour – and maybe ;) there will be some inspiration for future stamps or stencils. Have a wonderful week and sending you big healing hugs! Nat

      Reply

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