-Materials: Ceramic -Length: 45.1 cm • Diameter: 25.4 cm -Other Notes: “Ceramic drums with central, bulging sounding chambers were made in southern Peru at the turn of the first millennium. Among the most elaborately finished are those of Nasca style. A favored form was one in which a fat-bodied figure was worked into the shape of the instrument. The figure is depicted atop the wide mouth of the drum, over which a skin would have been stretched. The image is symbolically complex; a snake emerges from under the figure’s chin and a killer whale outlines each eye. The killer whales are in profile and show the ‘two-tone’ color differentiation normally given them in Nasca depictions. A headband is wound around the head and tied to form a hornlike projection on the forehead. In back, the figure’s hair is shown as serpents with long tongues.”
.. parientes disfruten la medicina de esta pequeña hermosura #Peruana #Aymara❤
..relatives, enjoy the medicine of this little #Peruvian Aymara #beauty.. ❤
“Kollasuyo people Aymara people Your children greet you Father Sun Father Sun Mother Moon The stars fill my heart with joy. Tupac Katari, Bartonila Sisa Grant us your strength To defend the Kollasuyo people Mother Earth, Mother Earth Do not cry I am offering you coca leaves That you may be strengthened"
What do these three Textile Museum collections pieces—a nineteenth-century Chinese hanging, late-Incan neckplate, and fifteenth-century Peruvian tabard—have in common? They were all made with feathers! Click the “information” icon at the top-right of each image to learn more about the feathers and techniques used for each.
It really takes a team effort to safely pack some of the largest and most fragile objects in The Textile Museum’s collections. The Paracas mantle is one of these special pieces. Due to its delicate nature, it needed to travel flat (without being folded or rolled), which posed challenges for moving it through tight doorways.
Ely, Inc. art handler Chris Kirages addressed these challenges by creating a special crate which uses foam padding and gentle compression to protect the piece and prevent it from shifting, while allowing the crate to tilt through doorways when needed.
In the photos above, you can see art handlers and the museum’s conservation and collections staff removing the piece from an over-sized storage drawer and placing it on padding inside the crate. Art handlers removed the board by slowly pulling it away as others gently held the mantle in place. Once the piece was off of its storage board and inside the crate, it was covered in soft tissue sheets, and another board was placed on top. The crate was sealed by screwing slats across the top, thus creating the gentle compression that kept this Peruvian treasure safe in transit.
Mantle, Peru, South Coast, Paracas style, ca. 600 BCE. Camelid fiber, 85 x 47 in. TM 91.192. Acquired by George Hewitt Myers in 1940.
Added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1991, this Roman Catholic basilica is at the heart of the Historic Centre of Lima. The church is also a monastery containing a library and catacombs. Original image.