One of the most extraordinary works in the Art Institute’s archaeological textile collection, this feathered tunic was created by Chimú weavers in northern Peru in 1470/1532. The knee-length, sleeveless garment is composed of a plain-weave cotton cloth completely concealed by thousands of brightly colored feathers. These coveted plumes were taken from macaws, parrots, toucans, cotingas, and tanagers from the tropical forests of South America. Because they were transported across the treacherous peaks of the Andes, the feathers were extremely rare and valuable and would only have been available to the most elite members of pre-Hispanic society. Thus, the feathered tunic—with its stylized felines, birds, and fish—would have been a sumptuous emblem of power, wealth, and prestige. Like many other pre-Hispanic textiles, it was buried with its owner in a subterranean tomb on the southern coast of Peru. The dark and arid conditions in these tombs protected the tunic, thereby allowing its vibrant colors and bold motifs to endure.
Cotton, plain weave; embellished with feathers knotted and attached with cotton in overcast stitches
Dimensions
85.1 × 86 cm (33 1/2 × 33 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Kate S. Buckingham Endowment
Reference Number
1955.1789
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Walter Lehmann with Heinrich Doering, Kunstgeschichete des Altan Peru (Berlin: Verlag Ernst Wasmuth A.G., 1924), 57, pl. XII.
Walter Lehmann with Heinrich Doering, The Art of Old Peru (Ernst Wasmuth, 1924), 57, pl. XII.
Pál Keleman, Medieval American Art. (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1943), vol. II, pl. 290a.
Heinrich Ubbelohde-Doering, The Art of Ancient Peru, 2nd ed. (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1954), 25, pl. 51.
Wendell C. Bennett, Ancient Arts of the Andes, exh. cat. (Museum of Modern Art, 1954), fig. 120.
Erwin O. Christensen, Primitive Art (Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1955), 231, fig. 253.
Allen Wardwell, Art Institute of Chicago, Primitive Art in the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 1965), back cover (ill.).
Christa Charlotte Mayer, Masterpieces of Western Textiles from The Art Institute of Chicago, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1969), 13 and 17, pl. 6.
Michel Thomas, Christine Mainguy, and Sophie Pommier, Textile Art (Skira and Rizzoli, 1985), 20 (ill.).
Johan Reinhard, “Interpreting the Nazca Lines,” in The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes, exh. cat. ed. Richard F. Townsend (Art Institute of Chicago, 1992), 301, fig. 19.
Ann Pollard Rowe, “Provincial Inca Tunics of the South Coast of Peru,” The Textile Museum Journal 31 (1992), 11-13.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide (Art Institute of Chicago, 1993), 224 (ill.).
Virginia Gardner Troy, Anni Albers and Ancient American Textiles: From Bauhaus to Black Mountain (Ashgate Publishing Company, 2002), 51, pl. 1.5.
Justo Cáceres Macedo, Tejidos del Perú Prehispánico- Textiles of Prehispanic Peru, (Lima, 2005), 465.
The Journal of the American Medical Association, January 7, 2009, cover.
Heidi King, Peruvian Featherworks, Art of the Precolumbian Era (New York, The Metropolitan Miuseum of Art, 2012), 124-127 (ill.).
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), 348, cat 315.
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Ancient Arts of the Andes, Jan. 25-March 21, 1954; travelled to Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, Masterpieces of Western Textiles, January 25–March 2, 1969
Art Institute of Chicago, European Textile Masterpieces from Coptic Times through the Nineteenth Century, September 27, 1989–January 22, 1990
Art Institute of Chicago, The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes, October 10, 1992–January 3, 1993, cat. 190; travelled to Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, February 4-April 18, 1993, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, June 6-August 15, 1993 (Chicago only)
The Art Institute of Chicago, Department of African and Amerindian Art, October 10, 1997- January 29, 1998
The Art Institute of Chicago, Department of African and Amerindian Art, February 7- July 5, 2001
The Art Institute of Chicago, The African and Amerindian Galleries, April 17 - September 14, 2015
Eduard Gaffron (1861–1931), Lima, Peru, from 1892 to 1912, then Berlin, from [History of the Department report (Joanne Behrens, 1985) and correspondence in curatorial file]; by descent to his children Mercedes Gaffron, Berlin then Durham S.C. 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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