15th Century & Earlier Framed Finely Woven Pre-Columbian Pictorial Textile Chimu Musuem Quality

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A well preserved and rare pictorial antique pre-Columbia textile panel from Chimu culture. Located in Northern Coast of nowadays Peru, … Read more A well preserved and rare pictorial antique pre-Columbia textile panel from Chimu culture. Located in Northern Coast of nowadays Peru, Chimu culture thrived in the late Intermediate/Horizon period circa 1000-1470 CE until it was conquered by Inca Empire in the late 15th century.
The panel appears to be part of a large Mantle shawl indicated by its size and the presence of bilateral fringes. It is woven from a very fine wool or camelid fiber of multiple dyed colors. The composition is made up of vertical bands with thin border. Individually woven and joined together with stitches, each band features alternate blocks animal motif and short horizontally stacked bands in contrast colors. Both lateral sides retain feather like fringes. The stylized depiction of the animal with long ears and four legs is llama or other camelids such as alpacas and vicuñas. These animals were often used as decorative motifs on textiles as they were an integral part of life in the Andeans. The finely executed figures contrast interesting with the bold bands and render the piece a strikingly graphic quality. Curiously, although the warm color palette consists mostly of red, darker and lighter brown, a singer llama had its legs and tongue woven in bright indigo blue. It appears that these were intentionally and meticulously done by the weaver, leaving one wonders if it was planned or happened spontaneous on the loom. We can only guess what went through the mind of the anonymous weaver hundreds of years ago.
The textile is of great antique condition and nearly intact. It is conserved and displayed on a white linen backing under an acrylic shadow box and ready to be enjoyed. See less