Tunic
Paracas (South coast, Peru)
200 BCE-1 BCE
- Medium
- Wool (camelid), simple looping; applied wool (camelid) braided neck edging; and unspun wool fringe
- Classification
- Costume and Accessories
- Dimensions
- 76.8 × 74.4 cm (30 1/4 × 29 1/4 in.)
- Culture
- Peru
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Textiles
- Credit line
- Simeon B. Williams Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This tunic is identifiable through the slit at the center to accommodate the wearer’s head and neck. The geometric design of interlaced stepped diagonal lines suggests the twisting together of threads to make yarn, a fitting motif for a textile. Similar motifs appear on ceramic vessels made by the Paracas; the use of the same twisted-thread design across different media demonstrates a consistent visual language and attests to the primacy of textiles as a means of aesthetic expression for the Paracas.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
