At least three weavers worked together to create this large textile. Their collaboration can be perceived in subtle vertical junctures in the threads, which appear at points throughout the gridded background. These lines divided their individual working areas. Ponchos were male garments, and this laboriously made example was likely a prestigious offering in the burial of an important man.
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.
Camelid wool, single interlocking tapestry weave and five-color complementary weft weave with center band of complementary weft weave
Dimensions
199.4 × 257.5 cm (78 1/2 × 101 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Ada Turnbull Hertle Endowment
Reference Number
1999.290
IIIF Manifest
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Richard F. Townsend, “Burial Mantle,” Notable Acquisitions at the Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 29, 2 (2003), pp. 10-11.
Richard F. Townsend and Kathleen Bickford Berzock, “The Art Institute of Chicago New Galleries,” in Tribal Arts XVI-1/62 (Winter 2011), p. 65, figure 12 (ill.).
Richard Townsend with Elizabeth Pope, Indian Art of the Americas at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago with Yale University Press, 2016), 376, cat 352.
Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery 136, Department of African and Amerindian Art, April 26-Sept. 27, 2011.
Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery 136, Department of African and Amerindian Art, May 10-Sept. 13, 2016.
Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery 136, Arts of the Americas, Aug. 13, 2019-Nov. 18, 2020 (Museum closed due to COVID-19 from Mar. 14-Jul. 30, 2020).
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