Panel Fragment
200-500
Medium
Wool (camelid) and cotton, plain weave of discontinuous single interlocking warps and wefts
Dimensions
51.8 × 32.7 cm (20 3/8 × 12 7/8 in.)
Classification
textile
Department
Textiles
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
2061
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This fragment, constructed with single interlocking warps and wefts, is composed of a pattern of over 20 step-frets rendered in 14 different colors. Nazca weavers are known for the wide range of colors employed in the production of their textiles. They achieved the various colors through dyeing and naturally colored yarns and by plying two different yarns together in order to produce additional colors. The irregularity of the pattern of the step frets displayed on this fragment may not reflect t...
About the Artist
Nasca
Nasca artists, active from approximately 100 BCE to 800 CE along the arid southern coast of Peru in the Rio Grande de Nazca and Ica Valleys, produced some of the most vibrant and technically innovative art of the ancient Americas. Their work emerged from the Paracas tradition, expanding on earlier resin-painted ceramics and complex textiles while introducing pre-fire slip painting in up to twelve ...