Description
The quality and variety of Chancay textiles, which include both woven and painted designs, demonstrate the importance of the medium to this culture. Here, rows of venomous scorpions scurry across wide yellow bands. The Chancay associated these nocturnal arachnids with death, war, and the supernatural, and they may allude to the power of ruling warriors.
Provenance
Eduard Gaffron (1861–1931), Lima, Peru, from 1892 to 1912, then Berlin, from 1912 [History of the Department report (Joanne Behrens, 1985) and correspondence in curatorial file]; by descent to his children Mercedes Gaffron, Berlin then Durham, SC, and Hans Gaffron (1902–1979), Berlin then Chicago [correspondence and documentation of the Gaffron Collection in curatorial file]; sold to the Art Institute, 1955.
Accession Number
85474
Medium
Cotton and wool (camelid), bands of weft faced plain weave, and slit tapestry weave with wrapping outlining wefts
Dimensions
41 × 40.3 cm (16 1/8 × 15 7/8 in.)
Classification
weaving
Credit Line
Kate S. Buckingham Endowment
