Cochiti Pueblo Dual Color Painted Drum [SOLD]

Painted and unpainted drums of all sizes are used in pueblo ceremonies. The drum suggests the thunder that comes with rain. The drum has two heads. Pueblo songs are written to start slowly and then go to a climax. At a certain point of the song, the drum is flipped over to achieve a higher beat. This lifts the dancers and gives them the impetus to continue dancing.

The body of this drum was painted red with the edges under the drumheads painted yellow and outlined with black lines.  The alternating triangles on the body, adjacent to the red-painted ones, were left without paint.  The unpainted cottonwood has assumed a beautiful oily patina over the decades.  Sometimes, the drum heads are painted but in this drum, they were left in the natural state.

Condition: very good condition

Provenance: from the collection of a gentleman from Alexandria, Virginia

Recommended Reading: Rain: Native Expressions from the American Southwest by Ann Marshall