Panel

Textiles

1000/1476

Chancay
Central coast, Peru

The Chancay culture thrived in several adjacent costal valleys in northern Peru from about 1000 to 1450. The painted textiles on view here demonstrate some of the diverse techniques Chancay artists employed. The works are woven from cotton cultivated on the Pacific coast and painted freehsnd. While the style of the painting varies, the motifs are consistent and include birds, felines, and a standing human-like figure wearing a crescent-shaped headdress, its arms raised. The significance of this individual is unknown—it may represent a supernatural being or human ruler—but the painted scenes often include depictions of waves, suggesting the landscape in which these textiles originated. (displayed with 2017.108)

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Textiles

Culture: Chancay
Title: Panel
Date: Made 1000–1476
Medium: Cotton, plain weave; painted
Dimensions: 199.1 × 51.8 cm (78 3/8 × 20 3/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Bruce J. Graham
Reference Number: 1964.1122
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/22338/manifest.json

Richard Townsend with Elizabeth Pope, Indian Art of the Americas at The Art Institute of Chicago (The Art Institute of Chicago with Yale University Press, 2016), pp. 357, 332.

Art Institute of Chicago, Department of African and Amerindian Art, May 12- August 7, 1987.
Art Institute of Chicago, Mexican, Central, and South American Textiles: A Living Legacy, October 28, 1992-January 17, 1993.
Art Institute of Chicago, Department of African and Amerindian Art, March 18- July 30, 1997.
Art Institute of Chicago, Department of African and Amerindian Art, January 17- May 30, 2002.
Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery 136, Department of African and Amerindian Art, September 23, 2014- December 16, 2014.
Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery 136, Department of African and Amerindian Art, June 7, 2018- March 6, 2019.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.