The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 21, 2025

Tunic with Profile Animal and Human Heads

c. 700–1100

Peru, South Coast, Wari Culture, Middle Horizon, 8th-12th Century

tapestry weave: wool
Average: 97.8 x 99.1 cm (38 1/2 x 39 in.)
Gift of John Wise 1949.12
Location: Not on view

Description

Wari tunics are made of two long panels folded at the shoulder line and stitched together at center and side seams, with openings left for the head and arms. The looms on which the panels were woven measured about 80 x 20 inches, with the warps spanning the short dimension. Thus, the warps are horizontal rather than vertical in the garment as it was worn. This orientation is unusual and seems to have influenced the construction of later Inca tunics. In this example, the imagery comprises two profile heads that alternate, one a human and the other an animal that may represent a deer or a bat. Such tunics were luxury goods worn only by privileged individuals.
  • Society of the Four Arts (Palm Beach, Fla.), and Gordon F. Ekholm. Pre-Columbian Art, the Native Art of America Before the Conquest: Jan. 10-Feb. 1, 1953. Palm Beach: Society of the Four Arts, 1952. Cat. No. 4
    Shepherd, Dorothy. "Some Recent Acquisitions of Peruvian Textiles." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 37, no. 8 (October 1950): 179-180. Mentioned: p. 179; Reproduced: p. 187 www.jstor.org
    Wadsworth Atheneum, Adelyn Dohme Breeskin, and Charles Crehore Cunningham. 2000 Years of Tapestry Weaving: A Loan Exhibition : Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Dec. 7, 1951 to Jan. 27, 1952 ; the Baltimore Museum of Art, Feb. 27, 1952 to Mar. 25, 1952. Hartford, Conn: Wardsworth Atheneum], 1951. p. 58, Cat. No. 166; plate XXIII, p. 85
  • Gallery 232- Andean Textile Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 10, 2020-August 19, 2021).
    Gallery 232- Andean Textile Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 5, 2015-August 29, 2016).
    Pre-Columbian Art: The Native Art of America Before the Conquest, The Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, FL, (January 10-February 1,1953).
    Andean Gallery 107 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 21, 2002-January 26, 2004).
    Gallery 107 Andean Textile Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 20, 2002-January 26, 2004).
    Treasures of Peruvian Gold. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 23-April 3, 1966).
    Treasures of Peruvian Gold, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 23-April 3, 1966).
    2000 Years of Tapestry Weaving, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT (December 25, 1951-January 27, 1952); The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD (February 27-March 25, 1952).
    Art, A Means to World Understanding, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 17-April 10 1949).
    Art of the Americas. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 9, 1945-January 6, 1946).
  • {{cite web|title=Tunic with Profile Animal and Human Heads|url=false|author=|year=c. 700–1100|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1949.12