The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

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 people

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

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.
  • Bergh, Susan E. “Acquisition Highlights 2016: Pre-Columbian and Native North American Art.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 57, no. 2 (March/April 2017): 15-16. Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 15 archive.org
  • Ancient Andean Textiles. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 14, 2024-December 14, 2025).
    Gallery 232- Andean Textile Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 28, 2018-August 26, 2019).
  • {{cite web|title=Tunic with Frontal Figures|url=false|author=|year=1400–1532|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2016.267