Artwork Page for Tunic with Frontal Figures

Details / Information for Tunic with Frontal Figures

Tunic with Frontal Figures

1400–1532

Central Andes, Central Coast, Ychsma (Pachacamac) people

Medium
Cotton; slit tapestry weave
Measurements
neck edge to hem: 46.7 cm (18 3/8 in.); width across shoulders: 81.9 cm (32 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2016.267
Public Domain
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Location
232 Andean
Print

Description

This tunic was made by weavers of the Ychsma (yeach-mah) people, who were affiliated with Pachacamac, a vast religious center that housed an oracle. The figures repeated across its composition may represent important ancestors or high-ranking members of society. The tunic likely dates to the period after the Inka Empire conquered Ychsma coastal territory, eventually becoming the largest Indigenous empire to have existed in the ancient Americas.
Medium-brown tunic laid out as a rectangle with a "v" shape slit in the upper center and fringe on the lower edge. It depicts repeated geometric representations of people standing with arms held out and knees bent at "v" angles, their heads triangular with two cat-ear-like protrusions from the tops of their heads. Face and bodies different colors, the people have dark-blue, light-brown, black, and white color combinations. Abstracted two-headed bird-like figures repeat between people.

Tunic with Frontal Figures

1400–1532

Central Andes, Central Coast, Ychsma (Pachacamac) people

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