Fragment of a Garment
1000-1476
Medium
Cotton and wool (camelid), gauze weave with brocading wefts with border of slit tapestry weave; edged with plain weave extended weft loop fringe
Dimensions
55.6 × 31.4 cm (21 7/8 × 12 3/8 in.)
Classification
weaving
Department
Textiles
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
85273
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Chancay weavers are known for their gauzes—like this headcloth in the Art Institute’s collection (AIC 1984.121). But “gauze” does not simply mean a gossamer cloth; it can also refer to a specific woven structure in which the vertical warp threads are crossed. Here, the maker developed an innovative gauze weave by adding brightly colored, brocaded, horizontal wefts to the underlying brown gauze in order to create designs of interlocking seabirds with long beaks and skinny legs. The horizontal, ta...
About the Artist
Chancay
The Chancay were a pre-Columbian culture that flourished along the central coast of Peru, in the valleys of the Huaura, Chancay, Chillón, and surrounding rivers, from approximately 1000 to 1470 CE. Emerging after the decline of the Wari civilization, the Chancay developed a distinctive artistic identity that set them apart from their Andean contemporaries, one defined above all by extraordinary ma...