Panel
Chancay (Probably central coast, Peru)
1000-1476
- Medium
- Cotton, plain weave; painted
- Classification
- Textile
- Dimensions
- 34.3 × 30.8 cm (13 1/2 × 12 1/8 in.)
- Culture
- Peru
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Textiles
- Credit line
- Kate S. Buckingham Endowment
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
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 artist's hand is discernible in the differences in line thickness and intensity of color, achieved with only a single colorant.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
