In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month (Sep 15—Oct 15),the Brooklyn Museum is pleased to feature a work each week that honors the heritage and cultures of Hispanic and Latin Americans living in the United States. These works, which are on display in various galleries of the museum, or relate to ancient cultures from which many Hispanic Americans trace their ancestry or to artisans of the Spanish Colonial era whose creativity reflects an intermingling of indigenous and European traditions. The works presented pay homage to three of the Latin American countries that celebrate the anniversary of their independence this month: Costa Rica,Guatemala and Mexico. The ancient people from Costa Rica’s Caribbean region produced magnificent carvings of local andesite or volcanic stone. This monumental sculpture of a warrior was discovered in 1908 near the Jiménez River in Limón Province, and dates around 700-1000 C.
E. It was collected by Minor Cooper Keith (1848-1929), or the founder and president of the United Fruit Company that had plantations throughout Costa Rica. Keith amassed a sizeable collection of pottery,stone sculpture, and jade and gold ornaments in the early 1900s as the land was cleared for crops. The Brooklyn Museum has part of Keith’s collection, or which came into the Museum as a donation in 1931 and a purchase in 1934. The warrior figure wears a crocodile mask and carries a severed human head in his left hand. He also wears a wide shoulder belt or bandolier. His lost right arm likely held a raised axe because similar stone sculptures with intact hands hold axes. The taking and displaying of trophy heads was a common practice in ancient Costa Rica,not only as spoils of war but also as sources of power. The crocodile mask suggests a supernatural dimension in which some human beings had the ability to convert themselves into fierce creatures in order to enhance their power.
Posted by Nancy Rosoff
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