This is a closer view of one of the gold lobsters in the Pre-Columiban Gold Museum in San Jose. This looks rather realistic, although the artist took some license, if we want to get nit picky in comparison to anatomical details. The front claws look small and the tail is large, but the skill and artistry is impressive, particularly for being more than 600 years old.
Rather than focusing on the details, I think the larger question is why did the artist decide to make a lobster. There are lots of more attractive animals to choose for a subject. Maybe he enjoyed the taste of lobster.
We have photos from a cruise up the east coast of Baja California in Mexico's Sea of Cortez posted this week on our
Viva la Voyage travel photo site.
6 comments:
You have a lot of gold and so many golden animals there :)
They are all very beautiful!
It makes me wonder if they ate lobsters like we do today.
I am amazed at all the gold sculptures on display at this museum. What a treasure!
In lots of cultures, specific traits are attributed to specific animals, so maybe the artist wanted to represent whatever trait is attributed to lobsters in Costa Rica. (It is as good a guess as any . . . )
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could go back to have answers to these perplexing questions?!
Lobsters are not the most attractive creatures, but he looks pretty good in gold.
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