Fragment from the Shoulder of a Tunic (Uncu)

Textiles

1550-1625

Colonial Inca
Inca or Indigenous
Viceroyalty of Peru, likely near Cuzco (now probably Peru, possibly Bolivia)

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).

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Textiles

Culture: Inca
Title: Fragment from the Shoulder of a Tunic (Uncu)
Place: Peru (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1532–1700
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.)
Credit Line: Bessie Bennett Endowment
Reference Number: 1924.459
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/12829/manifest.json

Joanne Pillsbury, “Inka Unku: Strategy and Design in Colonial Peru,” Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 7 (2002): 90, fig. 28.

Art Institute of Chicago, Department of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, Dec. 27, 1988–May 10, 1989.
Art Institute of Chicago, Department of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, Apr. 2–Nov. 4, 1992.
Art Institute of Chicago, Department of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, Aug. 23, 1993– Jan. 4, 1994.
Art Institute of Chicago, Department of African and Amerindian Art, May 17, 2000–Feb. 7, 2001.
Art Institute of Chicago, Department of African and Amerindian Art, Gallery 126, Apr. 14– June 29, 2005.
Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of the Americas, Gallery 136, Oct. 27, 2021-May 31, 2022.

Sumner Healey (1871–1936), Sumner Healey Antiques, New York, by 1923 [incoming receipt R1383, Dec. 21, 1923, copy in curatorial object file]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1924.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.