Tunic
Arts of the Americas
MEDIUM
Cotton, camelid fiber
DATES
600–1000
PERIOD
Middle Horizon Period
ACCESSION NUMBER
86.224.1
CREDIT LINE
Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc.
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
A tapestry tunic (shirt) with neck and arm openings. Decoration consists of two patterned, broad vertical bands alternating with three plain red vertical bands. Two patterned, very narrow bands are at the left and right sides of the tunic. The decorated bands contain vertical repeats of a winged, staff-bearing figure in profile. Each is distorted in a manner characteristic of Wari style tunics. The portions of the figure closest to the central seam (here, the staff and hand) are expanded beyond their normal proportions, and those toward the side seams (here, the wing) are condensed and compressed. The figure has clawed feet parallel to the tunic's bottom edge. The head is cast upward with a toothed, rectangular mouth at the top of each design unit. Each head is also surrounded with a U-shaped element from which appendages, some tipped with animal heads, emerge. Its eye is diamond-shaped, divided into bicolored parts, and surrounded by an elaborate decorative treatment that includes a bird's head. The abbreviated wing of the figure is parallel to the sides of the tunic and is edged with stylized animal heads. Designs found at the outermost edge of the two major decorative bands are repeated on the narrow side bands. The ground of the decorated bands is khaki-brown, while the figures are golden-beige, red, pink (faded), blue, white, and black.
Condition: Heavily damaged along lower edge. Stained and discolored in various areas (particularly visible in red stripes).
Size: adult. Probable wearer: male. Horizontal cotton warp. Camelid fiber weft. Tapestry weave with interlocked discontinuous weft (reversible).
Unku. Reverse side out. Design: animal head angel with fret band around head. Magenta plain bands.
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
Wari. Tunic, 600–1000. Cotton, camelid fiber, 39 x 43 11/16 in. (99 x 111 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc., 86.224.1. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: , CUR.86.224.1_view02.jpg)
IMAGE
overall,
CUR.86.224.1_view02.jpg., 2017
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a
Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply.
Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online
application form (charges apply).
For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the
United States Library of Congress,
Cornell University,
Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and
Copyright Watch.
For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our
blog posts on copyright.
If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact
copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
RECORD COMPLETENESS
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and
we welcome any additional information you might have.
