Esta figura personifica un cemí (un ancestro o una deidad) que se agacha y revela sus dientes mientras lagrimas ruedan por sus mejillas. Lleva puesta una gorra tejida, al igual que orejeras y envolturas de textil en sus extremidades. La forma hemisférica encima del cemí es una plataforma que funcionaba como superficie durante rituales importantes, encima de la cual los practicantes consumían esencias sagradas como el cohoba. La madera de la escultura no muestra erosión, lo cual sugiere que los miembros de la comunidad originaria la veneraron y la protegieron a través de los siglos.
A figure embodying a zemí (ancestor or deity) crouches as he bares his teeth and tears stream down from his eyes. He wears a woven cap, ear ornaments, and wrappings on his limbs. Anthropomorphic stands contributed to important rituals, functioning as surfaces on which practitioners activated sacred substances. The wood’s exceptionally preserved surface suggests that original community members revered and protected this zemí for centuries.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Zemí Cohoba Stand
Date:974–1020 CE
Geography:Dominican Republic (?), Caribbean
Culture:Taíno
Medium:Wood (Guaiacum sp.), shell
Dimensions:H. 27 x W. 8 5/8 x D. 9 1/8 in. (68.5 x 21.9 x 23.2cm)
Classification:Wood-Sculpture
Credit Line:The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979
Accession Number:1979.206.380
Edna Dakeyne, London, mid-1930s–1955; Nelson A. Rockefeller, New York, 1955, on loan to The Museum of Primitive Art, New York, 1956–1978
Seattle Art Museum. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," January 5, 1975–February 16, 1975.
American Federation of Arts. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," January 5, 1975–May 15, 1977.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," March 23, 1975–May 4, 1975.
Dallas Museum of Art. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," June 8, 1975–July 20, 1975.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," August 25, 1975–October 10, 1975.
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," November 9, 1975–December 21, 1975.
Toledo Museum of Art. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," April 11, 1976–May 25, 1976.
Walker Art Center. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," June 27, 1976–August 8, 1976.
Denver Art Museum. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," September 10, 1976–November 7, 1976.
de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," March 12, 1977–May 15, 1977.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Nelson Rockefeller Vision: In Pursuit of 'The Best' in the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas," October 7, 2013–October 9, 2014.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Arte del mar: Artistic Exchange in the Caribbean," December 16, 2019–June 27, 2021.
Museum of Primitive Art. Masterpieces in the Museum of Primitive Art: Africa, Oceania, North America, Mexico, Central to South America, Peru. Handbook series. New York, NY: Museum of Primitive Art, 1965, no. 73.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Art of Oceania, Africa, and the Americas from the Museum of Primitive Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1969, no. 537.
American Federation of Arts. Primitive Art Masterworks: an exhibition jointly organized by the Museum of Primitive Art and the American Federation of Arts, New York. New York: American Federation of Arts, 1974, no. 23.
Newton, Douglas. Masterpieces of Primitive Art: The Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978, p. 159.
Newton, Douglas, Julie Jones, and Kate Ezra. The Pacific Islands, Africa, and the Americas: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987, pp. 132–3, no. 97.
Paz, Octavio. Art millénaire des Amériques de la découverte a l'admiration, 1492–1992. Paris: Arthaud, 1992, p. 39, fig. 15.
Kerchache, Jacques, and Christian Duverger. "L'art Taíno-- les grandes Antilles precolombiennes." Connaissance des Arts (Special Issue) vol. 50 (1994), pp. 25, 26.
"Chefs-d'oeuvre des Grandes Antilles précolombiennes." In L'Art des Sculpteurs Taíno. Paris, 1994, pp. 114–117.
Avec les Indiens Taínos: Chlidren's guide no. 5. Paris: Musée du Petit Palais, 1994, cover.
Ostapkowicz, Joanna, Alex Wiedenhoeft, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Erika Ribechini, Samuel Wilson, Fiona Brock, and Tom Higham. "'Treasures...of black wood, brilliantly polished': Five examples of Taíno sculpture from the tenth–sixteenth century Caribbean." Antiquity vol. 85 (2011), p. 945, fig. 2.
LaGamma, Alisa. "The Nelson Rockefeller Vision: In Pursuit of the Best in the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 72 (2014), p. 6.
Doyle, James. "Arte del Mar: Art of the Early Caribbean." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 77, no. 3 (Winter 2020), cover; pp. 22–23, figs. 22, 23.
Join curator James Doyle for a conversation with Civic Practice Partnership artist in residence Miguel Luciano about the contemporary resonance of Taíno art.
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The Met's collection of art of the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and North, Central, and South America comprises more than eleven thousand works of art of varied materials and types, representing diverse cultural traditions from as early as 3000 B.C.E. to the present.
