Panel

Textiles

1250/1470

Possibly Chimú
Peru, Possibly north coast

Chimú artists commonly repeated abstract motifs in a regular pattern, as seen here in the arrangement of zoomorphic figures within three rows of squares bordered with motifs that suggest waves and stepped triangles. Some of the animal forms on the panel resemble splayed frogs; others resist identification. The staffs held by these creatures may connect them to the humanlike ones that frequently appear in Chimú textiles, such as this loincloth also in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Textiles

Culture: Chimú
Title: Panel
Place: Peru (Object made in)
Date: Made 1250–1470
Medium: Cotton and camelid wool, slit tapestry weave with eccentric wefts
Dimensions: 57.5 × 54.3 cm (22 5/8 × 21 3/8 in.)
Credit Line: Kate S. Buckingham Endowment
Reference Number: 1955.1760
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South Bend, IN, Art Gallery of the University of Notre Dame, Art of Ancient Peru, Dec. 20, 1961-Jan. 28, 1962.
Durham, NC, Woman’s College Library of Duke University, Art and Artifacts of Pre-Columbian Peru, Dec. 17, 1964-Jan. 20, 1965.
Art Institute of Chicago, Department of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, May 10- Aug. 23, 1989.
Art Institute of Chicago, Department of Arts of Africa and the Americas, March 6-Aug. 12, 2019.

Eduard Gaffron (1861–1931), Lima, Peru, from 1892 to 1912, then Berlin, from 1912 [History of the Department report (Joanne Behrens, 1985) and correspondence in curatorial file]; by descent to his children Mercedes Gaffron, Berlin then Durham, SC, and Hans Gaffron (1902–1979), Berlin then Chicago [correspondence and documentation of the Gaffron Collection in curatorial file]; sold to the Art Institute, 1955.

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