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Backrest of a Litter
1185–1275 (radiocarbon date, 95.4% probability)
- Medium
- mixed media: wood, gold alloy, pigment, shell inlay
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- Overall: 60.4 x 95 cm (23 3/4 x 37 3/8 in.)
- Culture
- Central Andes, North Coast, Chimú people, late Intermediate period
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Art of the Americas
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
This rare, dramatic object served as the back support of a litter carried by human porters, a mode of transport reserved for honored members of many societies without draft animals or wheeled vehicles. The simple, bold figures—perhaps a Chimú lord and four officials—all wear wide collars, tunics, and crescent headdresses that are either brightly painted or covered with golden but now-corroded sheet metal. The holes at the bottom probably served as lashing points for a beam that supported the litter's seat.
