Colonial Inca
Inca or Indigenous
Viceroyalty of Peru, likely near Cuzco (now probably Peru, possibly Bolivia)
Fragment from the Shoulder of a Tunic (Uncu)
INV-1282
Colonial Inca
Inca or Indigenous
Viceroyalty of Peru, likely near Cuzco (now probably Peru, possibly Bolivia)1550-1625
Fragment from the Shoulder of a Tunic (Uncu)
Colonial Inca Inca or Indigenous Viceroyalty of Peru, likely near Cuzco (now probably Peru, possibly Bolivia) →incaamericasandeanandestextileweaving
Date
1550-1625
Medium
Cotton and wool (camelid), single interlocking tapestry weave with eccentric wefts
Dimensions
24.8 × 38.7 cm (9 3/4 × 15 1/4 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Bessie Bennett Endowment
This textile was cut from the shoulder area of an Inca or Indigenous man’s tunic, called an uncu in Quechua. The maker wove the cantuta flowers in opposite directions so they would remain upright when the garment was worn. The cascades of rectangles that define the yoke were invented during the Spanish Colonial period, possibly reinventing a style from an earlier regional culture that had been conquered by the Incas. The faint line within the red threads is a diagonal break that reveals the cloth was woven in sections—a time-saving approach used after the Inca Empire’s strict rules for creating textiles waned.
This tunic waistband fragment in our collection was also part of the same garment. A third piece of the same tunic is in the collection of The Textile Museum in Washington, DC (91.8).
Also notable
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