Browse Items (35 total)

Qumpi, what the Inka called cloth made as well as humanly possible, is a deeply Andean category of clothing. Function, such as this being a man’s shirt, was not seen as opposite of what we may call art, the most skilled, aesthetic, intentional, and…

Of the incredible range of techniques and ideas that the ancient Andean textile artists developed, this piece required perhaps the most complicated creative process of all. At first glance, it simply seems like bits of tie-dyed cloth sewn together in…

Like the fragments of hummingbirds, this technically unique three-dimensional embroidery was stitched on the south coast of Perú around 200 AD. Originally, like the hummingbirds, these bean people were attached as borders to a plain-woven cloth…

These fragments of an innovative and unique technique date to ca. 200 AD and were made by the Nasca. They originally belonged to the same mantle, but ended up in two different university museum collections: Emory’s (the larger fragment) and…

Tinku, the way that two things can come together to produce a third, is a key Quechua concept. While the rows of tiny woven monkey motifs on the piece at left, barely an inch tall each, are very charming and impressive, they are out of place…

Most Native Americans consider bird feathers not only beautiful, but sacred gifts from the Winged Beings since molted feathers fall on the ground as if from the celestial realm. Tropical feathers especially exhibit brilliant natural coloration.…

Most Native Americans consider bird feathers not only beautiful, but sacred gifts from the Winged Beings since molted feathers fall on the ground as if from the celestial realm. Tropical feathers especially exhibit brilliant natural coloration.…

Most Native Americans consider bird feathers not only beautiful, but sacred gifts from the Winged Beings since molted feathers fall on the ground as if from the celestial realm. Tropical feathers especially exhibit brilliant natural coloration.…

Feathers from the Amazonian rainforest were prized above all else, and must be included in the idea of qumpi, precious fiberwork. Bringing them over the mountains to the coast, where such fans as this one were preserved, also invokes another key…

Throughout history imitation has been seen as “the sincerest form of praise” and the ancient Andes is no exception. Here featherwork is imitated in woven textiles, tapestry in particular. In this tiny piece, the quills are delineated, the ends…