It is rare to wander into a museum and be pleasantly surprised by the quality of the exhibits and the way they are shown. I like small museums that you can see the entire collection in an hour without being overwhelmed or bored. This museum was perfect. Only inaugurated in November 2012 the Museo Casa del Alabado is an art museum devoted exclusively to Pre-Columbian Art, located in Quito old town. The museum is housed in a Spanish residence just off San Francisco Square that was built in 1671. The name means ‘Praised be’ in Spanish. The ages of the pieces range from 4,500 B.C. to 1,500 A.D. mostly ceramics with some bronze and gold treasures. They were dug up on Ecuador’s coast which had thriving civilizations long before the Incas. The exhibits are divided into the Under-world, the Middle-world and the Upper-world according to the cosmology. The first includes creator myth imagery, the second graphic depictions of fertility and reproduction and the third the warriors, half-human half-animals and (my favourite) some very stoned-looking shamans. The lighting is good and they don’t mind photography without flash. The museum is a fitting tribute to those long-forgotten artists.
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