The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 25, 2022

Backrest of a Litter

1185–1275 (radiocarbon date, 95.4% probability)

Central Andes, North Coast, Chimú people, Late Intermediate Period

(AD 900 - 1470)

Mixed media: wood, gold alloy, pigment, shell inlay

Overall: 60.4 x 95 cm (23 3/4 x 37 3/8 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1952.233

Location

232 Andean

Fun Fact

Cinnabar, a toxic mercuric sulfide, was used to color the red background and faces of the figures.

Description

This rare, dramatic object served as the back support of a litter carried by human porters, a mode of transport reserved for honored members of many societies without draft animals or wheeled vehicles. The simple, bold figures—perhaps a Chimú lord and four officials—all wear wide collars, tunics, and crescent headdresses that are either brightly painted or covered with golden but now-corroded sheet metal. The holes at the bottom probably served as lashing points for a beam that supported the litter's seat.

Provenance
?-1952
John Wise, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
1952-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
"Art and Archaeology at the Cleveland Museum of Art." Archaeology 6, no. 4 (1953) p. 202 www.jstor.org
Bennett, Wendell Clark. Ancient Arts of the Andes. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1954. p. 120, fig. 137
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 351 archive.org
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, and Jay I. Kislak Collection (Library of Congress). Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. Cambridge: The Museum, 1937. p. 68
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 299 archive.org
Glubok, Shirley, Shirley Glubok, and Gerard Nook. The Art of Ancient Peru. New York: Harper & Row, 1966.
Cleveland Museum of Art. Selected Works: Cleveland Museum of Art. 1967. p. 235
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 299 archive.org
Howard, Cecil, and J. H. Parry. Pizarro and the Conquest of Peru. London: Cassell, 1970. p. 76
Masada, Yoshio. Ancient American Art (Japan, Gakken Co. Ltd, 1973)
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 403 archive.org
Scott, John F. Latin American Art: Ancient to Modern. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999.
Bergh, Susan E. "Fragment of the Chimú Prisoner Textile" published on the occasion of Enchanted: Visual Histories of the Ancient Andes, July 30-November 14, 2021, Menil Collection (2021). fig. 8 www.menil.org
Exhibition history

Ancient Arts of the Andes, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (January 26- March 29, 1954).

Treasures of Peruvian Gold, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 23- April 3, 1996).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1952.233