A ‘Golden’ stunner
The Getty takes a vivid look at luxury in the ancient Americas
Which is more valuable: a pound of gold or a pound of feathers?
The answer might seem obvious but depends on where you are, when. It hangs on the value system that a given society has in place.
If it’s 16th century Spain — or 21st century America — gold wins, hands down. But if it’s the Andes Mountains of South America before the first millennium, it’s feathers all the way.
Precious metal was neither absent from nor undesirable in the region of what is modern-day Peru, and it was used in all kinds of glittery ways. Gold was gorgeous, if only for its light-ref lective properties, but just not that big a deal.
Feathers, on the other hand, were a wow — visually and conceptually.
A spectacular exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum offers stunning demonstration. “Golden Kingdoms: Luxury and Legacy in the Ancient Americas” brings together more than 200 resplendent objects dating from at least 1000 BC to the 16th century. For starters, compare just two of them, one near the entrance and the other at the exit.
First is a big, 21-foot-wide wall of rectangular fiber panels, each covered in solid blocks of feathers in rich royal blue and vivid marigold — tens upon tens of thousands of them, a gridded wall that is like a Post-Minimalist mural made from the dorsal and ventral feathers of parrots. The other is an imposing oil painting of dignified men, all decked out in sumptuous gold adornments.
The feathered panels were found in 1943, rolled up in ceramic jars and buried at a ceremonial
Where: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood
When: Through Jan. 28; closed Mondays, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day
Info: (310) 440-7300, www.getty.edu