FEATURE
from cochineals and from certain vines. Some peoples
96
also used ochre, soot, ash, lime, and cinnabar,
among many other substances. This list is far from
comprehensive.
The use of feathers represents another category.
Considered a luxury item because it had to be
imported from faraway areas like Amazonia, the
feather also possesses innate characteristics such as
its ability to change color that lend it a magical aura.
Some examples of dyed feathers are known, but
they are rare since the brightly colored plumage of
parrots and other tropical birds usually made it unnecessary
to alter their natural appearance.7 Feather
compositions were often realized as “mosaics,”
composed of hundreds of cut pieces arranged as
tessera to create a design. Large quantities of feathers
were needed for such pieces, and consequently
they were extremely valuable. The sumptuous
beauty of most feather textiles is self-evident (fi g.
6). The Musée Royal d’Art et d’Histoire in Brussels
and the Museum aan de Stroom in Antwerp
both hold extraordinary examples that are featured
in the present exhibition. The technique used in
their manufacture was so remarkable that it was
adopted by Europeans to create representations of
Western religious scenes, such as the famous Messe
de Saint Grégoire, created in Mexico in 1539 and
now in the Musée des Jacobins in Auch, which was
prominent in the 2017 Feathers: Visions of Pre-Columbian
America exhibition at the Musée du Quai
Branly – Jacques Chirac. It is truly a masterpiece of
colonial art.
PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES
Andean weavers experimented with nearly all imaginable
techniques that their materials had to offer in
order to create their works. The technologies and
techniques they developed were transmitted orally
from generation to generation, and some of them
were among the most advanced in the world. These
types and techniques of weaving have been well described
in academic literature,8 and for space considerations
we will limit ourselves here to stating that
the weaving loom was the fi rst and most important
tool used in the creation of these textiles, as Sophie
Desrosiers explains in her catalog essay.9 Its simplicity
was the key to both its success and its longevity.
The Andean loom was made up of two bars around
which the warp threads were continuously strung,
separated into two fi elds that allowed for the passage
of the weft threads. The yarn thus never needed
to be cut, and the result was a textile that could have
either two or four selvages. Certain Andean textiles
were thus neither cut nor hemmed and represent a
substantially different way of conceiving the textile.
Even today, Andean weavers speak of fabric as an
animated and living thing. It is easy to understand
how great its importance was.
Various weaving techniques were used—tapestry,
netting, and braiding, to mention just a few. Their
diversity and complexity are such that there is no
space here to delve into detail about them. The essential
point is that Pre-Columbian textiles were
produced in an all-but-infi nite variety, and they
played a key role at the very heart of society.
The common denominator for all these styles of
textiles is the attention, care, and effort that was put
into creating them. The richness of the mantos and
headpieces in the fardos created for the deceased are
proof of the importance they had for both the living
and the dead. This also speaks to the symbolic role
they may have played in negotiation for and expression
of power and infl uence. Broadly speaking, the
Peruvian textile tradition spanned many centuries
up to and including the Inca period, adapting itself
along the way to successive cultural and political requirements
that developed along the Peruvian coast
within a series of kingdoms, hegemonies that each
gave rise to their own specifi c styles.
FIG. 19 (left): Funerary mask.
Moche, North Coast, Peru.
AD 100–600.
Gold and copper alloy, shell, stone.
H: 26 cm.
Linden-Museum Stuttgart.
inv. 119156.
© Linden-Museum Stuttgart.
Photo: A. Dreyer.