Nazca. <em>Mouth Mask</em>, 100-400 C.E. Hammered gold, A: 3 × 3 3/4 × 1/4 in. (7.6 × 9.5 × 0.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc., 86.224.110a-c. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 86.224.110a-c.jpg)

Nazca. Mouth Mask, 100-400 C.E. Hammered gold, A: 3 × 3 3/4 × 1/4 in. (7.6 × 9.5 × 0.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc., 86.224.110a-c. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 86.224.110a-c.jpg)

DOWNLOAD

Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

Hi! How does one wear a mouth mask? I can't picture how it stays on.

This would have been suspended from the nose and covered the mouth. It would have been a symbol of high status in the Nasca culture of Peru, where this is from. The small linkage between the snakes is where it would have been suspended.

Ah. So a piercing between nostrils. Ouch! Perhaps the upper part bends to wrap the nose too.

Exactly! Nostril piercings are still popular today! As this Mouth Mask is made from fairly thin gold, it would not have been that heavy.

We have more examples of Peruvian goldwork upstairs if you'd like to see more large jewelry.

Mouth Mask

Arts of the Americas

On View: Arts of the Americas Galleries, 5th Floor

CULTURE Nazca

MEDIUM Hammered gold

Place Found: South Coast, Peru

DATES 100-400 C.E.

PERIOD Early Nasca, Phases 2, 3, or 4

DIMENSIONS A: 3 × 3 3/4 × 1/4 in. (7.6 × 9.5 × 0.6 cm) B: 2 x 2 7/8 x 1/4 in. (5.1 x 7.3 x 0.6 cm) C: 2 x 3 x 3/16 in. (5.1 x 7.6 x 0.5 cm) Total weight: 13.37 g (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Arts of the Americas

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Arts of the Americas Galleries, 5th Floor

EXHIBITIONS

Climate in Crisis: Environmental Change in the Indigenous Americas

ACCESSION NUMBER 86.224.110a-c

CREDIT LINE Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc.

RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

CAPTION Nazca. Mouth Mask, 100-400 C.E. Hammered gold, A: 3 × 3 3/4 × 1/4 in. (7.6 × 9.5 × 0.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc., 86.224.110a-c. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 86.224.110a-c.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 86.224.110a-c.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph

"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Hammered repousse gold mouth mask that was worn suspended from the septum of the nose. Main section has circular void for mouth; around the void is a collarlike form with a scalloped border. The border is decorated with repousse dots and short curved lines that form the eyes and mouths of a series of stylized faces. Flanking the nose on the upper portions of the mask are two sets of five stylized whiskers taking the forms of serpents--four project to each side and one curves upward and inward encirling the nose; each set also contains a large stylized face with circles for eyes and a mouth that curves upward. The mask is in three parts; originally, these parts may not have been separated. Condition:good.

RECORD COMPLETENESS

Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.