Perforated contour découpé of an ibex head
Tito Bustillo, Asturias, Spain
Antler
Length: 7.9 cms
Museo Arqueológico de Asturias, Oviedo
2771
This miniature masterpiece represents a Pyrenean ibex and is a most remarkable work from the late Ice Age of Asturias. The indication of a beard hanging behind the chin indicates that this head presented in three dimensions depicts a male. The crenulations in the horn, the nostrils and mouth are incised into the relief form. The eyes are shown as holes that may originally have held shiny stones giving it a most remarkable appearance that was further elaborated by colouring the piece with red ochre. The ears are swept back beneath the horn and perforated enabling the head to be worn as a pendant. It is a complex combination of ideas seen elsewhere in two-dimensional cut out bone pendants and sculpted antler spear throwers uniquely conceived by a practised artist.
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