The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 18, 2024

Textile Fragment with Cotton Goddess

Textile Fragment with Cotton Goddess

800–500 BCE
Cotton, pigments
Overall: 34.3 x 36.2 cm (13 1/2 x 14 1/4 in.); Mounted: 39.1 x 41.3 cm (15 3/8 x 16 1/4 in.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2017.56
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The fragment comes from a larger textile, perhaps a ceremonial hanging.

Description

The figure painted on this fragment represents a female deity with a large, fanged mouth. Further fanged heads occur on the chest, legs, feet, waist, and staffs of authority she holds. Edging both the staffs and the top of the head are white cotton bolls that have caused the deity to be dubbed the Cotton Goddess and associated with nature’s fertility.
  • -1972
    Jean Leons, Paris, France, sold to a Private Collector
    1972-2017
    Private Collector, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2017-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Patricia Lyon, “Female Supernaturals in Ancient Peru,” Nawpa Pacha, vol. 16 (1978). plate XXIX
    Junius B. Bird Pre-Columbian Textile Conference, Junius Bouton Bird, Ann Pollard Rowe, Elizabeth P. Benson, and Anne-Louise Schaffer. The Junius B. Bird Pre-Columbian Textile Conference, May 19th and 20th, 1973. 1979. figs. 21 and 22
    Cordy-Collins, Alana. An Iconographic Study of Chavín Textiles from the South Coast of Peru: The Discovery of a Pre-Columbian Catechism. Ann Arbor, Mich: University Microfilms International, 1980. p. 76
    Brinckerhoff, Deborah. Weaving for the Gods: Textiles of the Ancient Andes : October 30, 1999 to March 19, 2000. 1999. Cat. No. 10
    Conklin, William J., and Jeffrey Quilter. Chavín: Art, Architecture, and Culture. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, 2008. p. xv
  • Messages from Minus Time: Revolutionary Textiles of the Chavin Culture of Peru, The Textile Museum, Washington, D.C. (2000).
  • {{cite web|title=Textile Fragment with Cotton Goddess|url=false|author=|year=800–500 BCE|access-date=18 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2017.56