Panel
1000-1476
Medium
Cotton, plain weave; painted
Dimensions
34.3 × 30.8 cm (13 1/2 × 12 1/8 in.)
Classification
textile
Department
Textiles
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
85217
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This painted panel depicts an anthropomorphic figure with a crescent headdress accompanied by two birds. Certain details of the figure—especially the triangularly stacked tail and the beak-like mouth and tongue—are often associated with depictions of the caiman, a large reptile native to South America. Caimans were revered in Andean culture for their ability to transition between land and water, which implied cosmic duality and mythical power. Although the top right corner has been replaced, the...
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...