Ica Valley, Peru / Mantle / 2nd-1st century B.C.E.

Ica Valley, Peru
Mantle
2nd-1st century B.C.E.
View Larger Image

View Full Catalog Record Below

This image is one of over 108,000 from the AMICA Library (formerly The Art Museum Image Consortium Library- The AMICO Library™), a growing online collection of high-quality, digital art images from over 20 museums around the world. www.davidrumsey.com/amica offers subscriptions to this collection, the finest art image database available on the internet. EVERY image has full curatorial text and can be studied in depth by zooming into the smallest details from within the Image Workspace.

Preview the AMICA Library™ Public Collection in Luna Browser Now

Cultures and time periods represented range from contemporary art, to ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian works.
Types of works include paintings, drawings, watercolors, sculptures, costumes, jewelry, furniture, prints, photographs, textiles, decorative art, books and manuscripts.

Gain access to this incredible resource through either a monthly or a yearly subscription and search the entire collection from your desktop, compare multiple images side by side and zoom into the minute details of the images. Visit www.davidrumsey.com/amica for more information on the collection, click on the link below the revolving thumbnail to the right, or email us at amica@luna-img.com .

Creator Nationality: South American; Peruvian
Creator Active Place: Ica Valley, Peru
Creator Name-CRT: Ica Valley, Peru
Title: Mantle
Title Type: Object name
View: Full View
Creation Start Date: -19
Creation End Date: 0
Creation Date: 2nd-1st century B.C.E.
Object Type: Costume and Jewelry
Classification Term: Textiles-Non-Woven
Materials and Techniques: Camelid hair
Dimensions: 54 1/4 x 74 3/8 in. (137 x 188.9 cm)
AMICA Contributor: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Owner Location: New York, New York, USA
ID Number: 1986.488.1
Credit Line: Gift of Rosetta and Louis Slavitz, 1986
Rights: http://www.metmuseum.org/
Context:

Images of twelve 'oculate beings' are worked into this mantle by a technique called sprang, which replicates the pattern in mirror image on either side of the vertical center. The oculate beings are composed of stylized frontal heads with concentrically ringed eyes (from which they get their name) and semierect spotted bodies. They stand in two horizontal registers, alternately right side up and upside down across the width of the mantle. Their heads, too, can be read two ways, indicating yet again the visual complexity of which the ancient Peruvians were capable. The mantle is an early example of a textile type thought to be a man's cloaklike garment that was long in use in Precolumbian Peru. Fully articulated by the late centuries B.C.E., mantles continued to be made until long after the Spanish conquest of the sixteenth century. A number of complete early mantles are known from Ocucaje in the southern Ica Valley, the source of this example. It is one of the largest Peruvian textiles made in sprang, a technique in which there is no weft and the pattern is produced by hand manipulation of the warp. Openwork Ocucaje mantles had a funerary function.

AMICA ID: MMA_.1986.488.1
AMICA Library Year: 2000
Media Metadata Rights: Copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art

AMICA PUBLIC RIGHTS: a) Access to the materials is granted for personal and non-commercial use. b) A full educational license for non-commercial use is available from Cartography Associates at www.davidrumsey.com/amica/institution_subscribe.html c) Licensed users may continue their examination of additional materials provided by Cartography Associates, and d) commercial rights are available from the rights holder.