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

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

The Inca Trail: The Past of the Andes

Through December 2012, a new thematic exhibition devoted to Andean cultures will be on view at the Barbier-Mueller Museum for Pre-Columbian Art. The Inca Trail is organized into two parts, the first of which deals with the indigenous cultures that preceded the establishment of the Inca Empire, the second being devoted entirely to the latter's creations. The exhibition's connecting thread is the Qhapaq Nan, or "Inca Trail," a gargantuan network of roads that linked what is now southern Colombia with northwestern Argentina and central Chile, by way of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. Ninety-eight pieces from the major cultures of this geographic area, twenty-six of which come from the Barbier-Mueller's collection, are superbly presented.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Cup with mythological figure  -  Jama Coaque, Ecuador  -  500 BC–750 AD

Double-spouted jug  -  Chimú, Peru  -  1100–1500 AD

Stirrup-spout vessel with portrait head  -  Moche or Mochica, Peru  -  200 BC–700 AD

Standing figure  -  Chorrera, Ecuador  -  800–400 BC

Cup with male figure  -  Jama Coaque, Ecuador  -  500 BC–500 AD

Vessel with copulating couple  -  Huari, Peru  -  600–1000 AD

Stirrup-spout vessel with multiple figures  -  Moche or Mochica  -  300–1000 AD

Crown ornament depicting a mythical feline  -  Moche or Mochica, Peru  -  200 BC–700 AD

Information and images courtesy of the Musées Barbier-Mueller