Sleeved Tunic
Unknown Artist
1460s–1532
Medium
Cotton, camelid fiber
Dimensions
length back of neck to hem: h. 40.6 cm · width across shoulders: w. 128.9 cm
Classification
Textile
Department
Textiles
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
Accession Number
2017.193
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The Chancay (chan-kai) people of Peru’s central coast created one of the ancient Andes’s best-known textile legacies through artistically elaborate men’s tunics and loin cloths, women’s dresses and headcloths, and shawl-like mantles. Two traits indicate that this tunic is a high-prestige garment: its labor-intensive tapestry-woven technique and its substantial use of alpaca fiber imported from the adjacent highlands.