L'Inca et le Conquistador

L’Inca et le conquistador (The Inca and the Conquistador), a new exhibition at the Musée du Quai Branly, uses artistic creations by the Inca and by the Spanish to tell both sides of the story of the conquest of Peru and to illustrate the confrontations that resulted from contact between two radically different worlds. Conceived by curator Paz Núnez-Regueiro, the exhibition focuses on two protagonists, the Inca sovereign Atahualpa and the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, whose interactions provoked a profound political, economic, cultural, and religious revolution in both of their empires. The paintings, weapons, textiles, gold objects, ceramics, maps, and engravings, mostly from the museum’s own collection, together tell this epic story and shed light on this mutual encounter with the “other.”

View the exhibition's official website.

Gold figurine  -  Inca, Peru  -  15th–16th century 

Portrait of Huayna Capac, Inca XII

Portrait of Atahualpa, Inca XIV

Male figure  -  Inca, Peru  -  15th–16th century

Peruvian Gold: Ancient Treasures Unearthed

In its final weeks at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, DC is Peruvian Gold: Ancient Treasures Unearthed, which showcases a stunning array of gold and silver artifacts from Peru's pre-Inca heritage, including ceremonial and funerary masks, textiles, ceremonial ornaments, ceramics, and jewelry. The centerpiece of the exhibition is "El Tocado," the largest and most ornate pre-Columbian headdress ever discovered. This extraordinary example of gold regalia dates from the Middle Sican period (AD 900–1100) and came to light again in 1991. The exhibition draws its material from three Peruvian institutions: the Sican National Museum, the Larco Museum, and the Museum of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Gold and the Incas: Lost Worlds of Peru

The National Gallery of Australia is hosting a major international exhibition, Gold and the Incas: Lost Worlds of Peru, until April 21, 2014. This installation is the most important survey of Peruvian art ever staged in Australia and will showcase the splendor of the ancient pre-Hispanic cultures of Peru. Audiences will encounter the aesthetic depth, drama and beauty of the famous Incan empire and its predecessors. More than 200 objects, from scintillating gold pieces made to decorate the nobility in life or in death, intricate jewelery, elaborate embroidered and woven cloths to breathtakingly sophisticated ceramic sculptures will be on display.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Images and information courtesy of the National Gallery of Australia

Wari: Lords of the Ancient Andes

Wari: Lords of the Ancient Andes, on view through September 8 at the Kimbell Art Museum in Forth Worth, Texas explores the artistic accomplishments of the Wari culture of Peru through some 140 works in polychrome ceramic, precious metals, mosaic, wood and stone, and more. Organized originally by the Cleveland Museum of Art, these works paint a picture of the Wari state and offer insights into their expansion strategies.

For more information, visit the exhibition's official website.

Images courtesy of the Kimbell Art Museum

Chavín at the Museum Rietberg

On view at Zürich's Museum Rietberg until March 10 is Chavín, an exhibition exploring one of South America's most ancient known cultural centers. In the narrow valley of Callejón de Conchucos, behind the snow-covered mountains of the Cordillera Blanca in the Peruvian highlands, lie the ruins of the ceremonial complex of Chavín de Huántar. Erected at least 2,500 years before the Inca, the monumental temple would have involved vast expenditure and enormous labour. This exhibition features an array of marvelous Peruvian works excavated from the theatrically conceived ceremonial center, and unveils the worldview and system of meaning it sough to embody.

View the exhibition's official website.

Mortar for the preparation of psychoactive substances  -  900–550 BC

Stirrup-spout vessel depicting a transformation  -  1200–500 BC

Anthropomorphic head  -  900–550 BC

Mouth mask of a priest  -  800–550 BC

Information and images courtesy of the Museum Rietberg