Chimú
Possibly Nazca Valley, south coast, Peru

Feathered Tunic with Felines, Birds, and Fish, A.D. 1470/1532

Cotton, plain weave; embellished with feathers knotted and attached with cotton in overcast stitches
85.1 x 86 cm (33 1/2 x 33 7/8 in.)
Kate S. Buckingham Endowment, 1955.1789

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

Art Institute of Chicago, Masterpieces of Western Textiles, January 25–March 2, 1969.

Art Institute of Chicago, European Textile Masterpieces from Coptic Times through the Nineteenth Century, September 27, 1989–January 22, 1990.

Art Institute of Chicago, The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes, October 10, 1992–January 3, 1993, cat. 190; travelled to Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, February 4-April 18, 1993, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, June 6-August 15, 1993 (Chicago only).

Publication History

Walter Lehmann, The Art of Old Peru (Ernst Wasmuth, 1924), color pl. XII and p. 57.

Heinrich Ubbelohde-Doering, The Art of Ancient Peru (Frederick A. Praeger, 1952), p. 25 and pl. 51.

Wendell C. Bennett, Ancient Arts of the Andes, exh. cat. (Museum of Modern Art, 1954), fig. 120.

Erwin O. Christensen, Primitive Art (Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1955), fig. 253 and p. 231.

Art Institute of Chicago, Primitive Art in the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 1965), ill. on back cover.

Christa Charlotte Mayer, Masterpieces of Western Textiles from The Art Institute of Chicago, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1969), p. 13 and p. 17, color pl. 6.

Michel Thomas, Christine Mainguy, and Sophie Pommier, Textile Art (Skira and Rizzoli, 1985), p. 20 (ill.).

Johan Reinhard, “Interpreting the Nazca Lines,” in The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes, exh. cat. ed. Richard F. Townsend (Art Institute of Chicago, 1992), p. 301, color fig. 19.

Ann Pollard Rowe, "Provincial Inca Tunics of the South Coast of Peru," The Textile Museum Journal 31 (1992), pp. 11-13.

Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide (Art Institute of Chicago, 1993), p. 224 (ill.).

Virginia Gardner Troy, Anni Albers and Ancient American Textiles: From Bauhaus to Black Mountain (Ashgate Publishing Company, 2002), p. 51, color pl. 1.5.