why does the "spider" have four legs....is it a beetle.?

Count the legs. It has eight. There's four on each side. And, as most of us should know, 4+4=8

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Course: The Metropolitan Museum of Art > Unit 1

Lesson 11: The art of dress

Nose Ornament with Spiders from ancient Peru

Met curator Julie Jones on intrigue in Nose Ornament with Spiders from ancient Peru, 1st century B.C.E. – 2nd century, C.E.

Nose ornaments are among the earliest jewelry forms in Precolumbian America and were made in an endless variety of materials and styles; those for the elite were made of precious metal. In Peru, nose ornaments became less fashionable in the second half of the first millennium A.D. and were seldom used after about 600. This elegant, very delicate crescent nose ring from northern Peru is evidence of the high level of craftsmanship that existed among metalworkers at this time. Depicted are four spiders sitting in their web. The openwork, lacelike quality of the object was achieved by fusing the many minute parts together to create a symmetrical composition. The stylized spiders, their tiny eyes and fangs showing, are held, each in its own open space, by paired, spindly legs echoing the round bodies and joined to the web. Spider imagery occurs in Peruvian art from the middle of the first millennium B.C.E. onward, suggesting that spiders played a role in early Andean mythology. The spiders' ability to catch and kill live prey associates them with sacrifice. Information from the sixteenth-century Inka peoples links spiders with rainfall and fertility.

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ken sanders
Posted 9 years ago. Direct link to ken sanders's post “such detail and the craft...”
such detail and the crafter don't know how many legs a "spider" has,,,,??
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ken sanders
Posted 9 years ago. Direct link to ken sanders's post “why does the "spider" hav...”
why does the "spider" have four legs....is it a beetle.?
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- Ellie Miskimen
  Posted 9 years ago. Direct link to Ellie Miskimen's post “Count the legs. It has ei...”
  Count the legs. It has eight. There's four on each side. And, as most of us should know, 4+4=8
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Debby A. Debryana
Posted 8 years ago. Direct link to Debby A. Debryana's post “How does someone fit thos...”
How does someone fit those ornament to the nose? Does it fits like septum ring?
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(1 vote)
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Video transcript

In the ancient Americas, during certain times and places people wore ornaments in their nose, as many people do today. Except they got a little bit bigger in ancient times. You wouldn’t have worn them everyday. Many of them are made of gold. You can appreciate them for the sheer geometry of these beautiful little things. And this one would have hung from the septum of the nose. It’s lightweight and airy which evokes the immateriality of a cobweb. And there the spiders are, stuck in their web. Peru, particularly along the coast, it’s one of the driest deserts in the world. And the spiders were associated with agricultural fertility and rain. The idea that you have a creature that is associated with something as precious as rain just adds to the meaning of the object. For some hundreds of years they were fashionable with the high level men. When you wore them, this would fit over the mouth. There are other such ornaments that practically cover the whole face, and it’s a form of mask, a form of changed personality. Those have other implications, some shamanistic role. It may have been worn by a man who had some extra perception of when it’s gonna rain. In the tombs of important people you can find as many as five–six nose ornaments, often with different imagery so that each image must have meant something to the person there. All of the luxury goods of the era in which this particular nose ornament was made do emphasize the face. They were trying to make the person who wore them significant. They were the billionaires of their time. Unfortunately, the New World has very few writing systems; what we learn from are often the objects themselves. It’s part of the intrigue leading you on. Altogether, it’s the objects that have to speak for their time and place.