In 1579 Perú’s viceroy sent off a gift to King Philip II in Spain: the Incas’ gold effigy of the dawn-sun (Punčaw), seized from the rebel Inca nobles of Vilcabamba.1 Described by the viceroy as a male figure the size of an infant, the object was likely a work of postcontact cultural improvisation, so much native Andean ideology poured into a sculptural genre made newly potent by European piety: off went the Incas’ (anti-)Christ child. The object is last cited in Habsburg archives in 1598. Thereafter it disappears, almost certainly fed to the smelter. If it survived into the nineteenth century, it was likely melted down by French agents to finance Napoléon’s Russian campaign of 1812. Protean and shape-shifting, preColumbian gold and silver were long ago folded into the global fund of precious metal. So much adventurism and desire still draw from that reserve. Metal mined in the pre-Columbian Americas stares out from the voluptuous green of Federico García Lorca’s Romancero Gitano (1928): “ojos de fría plata” (eyes of cold silver).2 Ancient American gold is in our dental work, grinding food to pulp. It has been shot into space: the probe Voyager carries the “Golden Record”—an analog LP cut with music from around the planet (Mozart, Mississippi blues, Andean panpipes). In the expanse beyond Pluto, Voyager’s gold-soldered digital circuitry listens for faint cosmic signals; ancient American gold sends home what George Kubler called “the old light of dead stars.”3 All those historical materialities lie beyond the scope of the exhibition Golden Kingdoms, mounted by the Getty Research Institute and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Kubler’s provocations beyond its theoretical ambitions. Kubler is the bestknown specialist of pre-Columbian art outside our subfield—as author of mantic thought experiments on art and time and an early advocate for a global art history.4 Even so, he remains a marginal figure in pre-Columbian studies. Whereas Kubler practiced a Germanic cultural history, most scholars in pre-Columbian studies hew to the stolid Anglo-American positivism of “culture history”—the archaeological recuperation of individual precontact American civilizations, the decoding of ancient thought and symbol systems, and the restoration of those histories to broad public awareness. It is that project—that historical materiality—delivered by the expertly curated show Golden Kingdoms. Golden Kingdoms introduces visitors to the story of pre-Columbian materiality and cultural value. Precious metal is the unifying cultural/material thread: the exhibition traces the path of precontact American metal production through time and geographic space, following its origins in the northern Andean highlands through its subsequent panand extra-Andean geographic diffusion. The visitor is introduced to a deep, variegated metallurgical tradition broadly oriented toward the production of jewelry and other bodily adornment. From early works identified with the Chavín cultural phenomenon—cylindrical crowns bearing the figures of composite human/feline/reptilian deities—the show moves chronologically through art of subsequent Andean cultures, then to the art of precontact Central and Mesoamerican peoples. The exhibition brings forward culturally specific type objects from individual pre-Columbian traditions, emphasizing the technical and formal diversity of precontact American metalwork. One of the exhibition’s primary interests is to demonstrate that precious metal was not the only, nor in most cases even the primary esteemed artistic medium in pre-Columbian societies. For all its emphasis on gold and silver objects, the exhibition is careful to set metalwork alongside other media of preColumbian art: weaving and embroidery in cotton and animal fiber; featherwork; Reviews

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黄金王国：古代美洲的奢华与传统；和《金色王国：古代美洲的奢华艺术》，作者：乔安妮·皮尔斯伯里（Joanne Pillsbury），蒂莫西·波特（Timothy Potts）和金·里希特（Kim N. Richter），编辑。

1579年，秘鲁的总督向西班牙的菲利普二世国王送了一份礼物：从反叛的印加贵族比尔卡班巴（Vilcabamba）手中夺取的印加人的黎明太阳金像（Punčaw）。1被总督描述为一个男性雕像，大小为婴儿，这个物品很可能是接触后即兴创作的产物，因此，许多安第斯意识形态涌入了一种雕塑风格，这种雕塑风格因欧洲的虔诚而变得很有效：印加人的（反）基督孩子流了下来。该物品在1598年的哈布斯堡档案馆中被最后引用。此后它消失了，几乎可以肯定地送入了冶炼厂。如果它幸存到19世纪，它很可能会被法国特工融化，以资助拿破仑在1812年的俄国战役。前哥伦比亚的变形和变质的黄金和白银早就被折叠成全球贵金属基金。大量的冒险精神和欲望仍然来自于这种储备。哥伦比亚前美洲地区开采的金属从费德里科·加西亚·洛尔卡（FedericoGarcíaLorca）的《浪漫的吉塔诺》（Romancero Gitano）（1928年）的妖green绿色中凝视着：“ ojos defríaplata”（冷银的眼睛）。2美国古代的黄金在我们的牙科工作中，将食物磨成粉纸浆。它已被射入太空：旅行者号探测器携带着“黄金唱片”，这是一首模拟LP，上面有来自地球各地的音乐（莫扎特，密西西比蓝调和安第斯排箫）。在冥王星以外的广阔地区，旅行者号的镀金数字电路监听着微弱的宇宙信号。美国古代的黄金将乔治·库伯勒（George Kubler）所说的“死星的旧光”送回了家。3所有这些历史性物质都超出了盖蒂研究所和大都会艺术博物馆举办的“金色王国”展览的范围，和库伯勒的挑衅超出了其理论野心。库伯勒是我们子领域以外最著名的哥伦布前艺术专家，是有关艺术和时间的狂躁思想实验的作者，也是全球艺术史的早期倡导者。4即便如此，他仍然是哥伦布前研究的边缘人物。库布勒实践了日耳曼文化史，而哥伦布前时期的大多数学者则偏向于英美的“文化历史”实证主义-对个人预先接触的美国文明的考古修复，对古代思想和符号系统的解码以及复原。这些历史使公众认识广泛。专业策划的演出《金色王国》就是这个项目，具有历史意义。黄金王国向游客介绍了前哥伦布时期的物质和文化价值的故事。贵金属是统一的文化/材料线：展览追溯了美国金属生产在时间和地理空间上的预接触路径，跟随其在安第斯山北部高地的起源和随后的泛安第斯山地外地理扩散。向参观者介绍了一种深奥的，多样化的冶金传统，广泛应用于珠宝和其他身体装饰的生产。该展览从具有查汶文化现象的早期作品（带有人类/猫/爬虫类复合神像的圆柱冠）开始按时间顺序移动，随后是安第斯文化的艺术，然后是预接触中美洲和中美洲人民的艺术。该展览提出了具有前哥伦布时期传统的文化特定类型的物品，强调了美国预接触金属制品在技术和形式上的多样性。展览的主要兴趣之一就是证明贵金属不是唯一的哥伦比亚艺术品，在大多数情况下，甚至不是哥伦布前社会中最受尊敬的艺术品。展览着重于黄金和白银的物品，因此精心将金属制品与哥伦比亚前时期艺术的其他媒介设置在一起：用棉和动物纤维编织和刺绣；羽毛 评论 在大多数情况下，甚至在前哥伦布时代的社会中，最受尊敬的主要艺术媒介也是如此。展览着重于黄金和白银的物品，因此精心将金属制品与哥伦比亚前时期艺术的其他媒介设置在一起：用棉和动物纤维编织和刺绣；羽毛 评论 在大多数情况下，甚至在前哥伦布时代的社会中，最受尊敬的主要艺术媒介也是如此。展览着重于黄金和白银的物品，因此精心将金属制品与哥伦比亚前时期艺术的其他媒介设置在一起：用棉和动物纤维编织和刺绣；羽毛 评论