Cloth with Procession of Figures
Unknown Artist
170 BCE–70 CE (radiocarbon date, 95% probability)
Medium
cotton and pigment (field); camelid fiber (borders and fringe)
Dimensions
69.8 × 280.7 cm · mounted: 78.7 × 290.2 cm
Classification
Textile
Department
Textiles
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
The Norweb Collection
Accession Number
1940.530
About this artwork
Experts agree that this cloth is one of the greatest paintings to survive from Andean antiquity due to the realism, complexity, large size, and refined execution of its figures. All but one of the figures wear the whiskered mouth mask of Nasca supernatural beings and several carry or wear severed human heads, which the Nasca linked to nature’s fruitfulness. Thus, the figures seem to represent supernatural forces or humans personifying such forces during a ritual devoted to agricultural fertility...