Taíno Bowl, front view
Date
1475-1525
Creator
Name(s) currently unknown
Location
Florence, ITA, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Museo di Storia Naturale (current location)
Introduction
Among the Taíno in the Caribbean, carved bowls like this one were used for feasting or for the preparation of cohoba, a powerful hallucinogenic snuff. This bowl reveals part of the aesthetic system at the time of contact, particularly the Taino preference for juxtaposing muscular figures and faces with carefully smoothed surfaces.
Iconography
Like many Taíno wooden objects, this one was carved out of a single piece of local tropical wood. The two colors are the natural difference between the inner and outer layers of the tree. Taíno works were frequently figural and the handle may be a supernatural zemi or a shaman in a state of rapture. The large, staring eyes suggest visionary abilities. The triangular nose cavity and oversize teeth of the figure look like those of a skeleton. Taíno figures often combined skeletal elements with oversized sexual organs to embody the duality of life and death. The figure has teeth made of inlaid shell, and large eyes and ears or earflares. These may have been once inlaid with shell.
Patronage/Artist
No records survive describing the craftsman or patron, but objects from the late 15th and early 16th centuries point to skilled artisans in Taíno society. The maker of this work may have specialized in wood-and-shell creations like ceremonial bowls, duhos (the carved stools used by caciques), and free standing zemi figures—distinct objects that sometimes share representational elements and carving techniques.
Material/Technique
While the Taíno made ceramic vessels, they also used wooden ones, carving the desired shape out of a single piece of wood, using sharp stone axes. Shell inlay is often seen in surviving examples of Taíno work. The inclusion of the figure suggests that this bowl was intended for ceremonial rather than strictly utilitarian purposes.
Context/Collection History
Some Taíno works were collected as curiosities by friars and other Spaniards in the 16th century and sent back to Europe. Wooden works are rare, because they are so susceptible to rot and insect infestation. This one is currently in an Italian collection, as is another Taíno figure, the zemi, included in Vistas.
Cultural Interpretation
Spaniards coming to the Caribbean in the wake of Columbus undoubtedly made use of Taíno objects, since they arrived in ships with only the barest of necessities. Some Europeans wrote admiring of both canoes and hammocks, and adapted them for their own use. Objects such as this one, however, more likely caught European eyes as curiosities, and were collected as such. Because Spanish labor practices and imported diseases decimated Taino culture so quickly, little is known about Taino daily life of the 15th and 16th centuries. This object nevertheless suggests that the Taino valued careful craftsmanship and distinctive patterns of representation—not merely the silver or gold Spaniards hope to extract from their islands.
Photo credit
Reproduced courtesy of the Università degli Studi di Firenze, Museo di Storia Naturale, Firenze
Cite as
Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy.
Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820. http://www.fordham.edu/vistas, 2015.
Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820. http://www.fordham.edu/vistas, 2015.
Selected bibliography
Bercht, Fatima, et. al. 1997. Taíno: Pre-Columbian Art and Culture from the Caribbean. New York: The Monacelli Press and El Museo del Barrio.
Oliver, José. 2009. Caciques and Cemí Idols: the Web Spun by Taíno Rulers Between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
Ostapkowicz, Joanna et al. 2011. "'Treasures...of black wood, brilliantly polished': five examples of Taino sculpture from the tenth-sixteenth century Caribbean." Antiquity: 85 (329): 942-959.
Oliver, José. 2009. Caciques and Cemí Idols: the Web Spun by Taíno Rulers Between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
Ostapkowicz, Joanna et al. 2011. "'Treasures...of black wood, brilliantly polished': five examples of Taino sculpture from the tenth-sixteenth century Caribbean." Antiquity: 85 (329): 942-959.
Collection
Tags
Citation
“Taíno Bowl, front view,” VistasGallery, accessed September 16, 2024, https://vistasgallery.ace.fordham.edu/items/show/1898.