Andean Textiles

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Andean weaving was among the arts practiced in colonial Latin America that retained the closest connection to Precolumbian traditions. The flocks of alpacas and other camelids that had yielded tapestry cloth of a beauty astonishing to the Spanish newcomers continued to anchor life among the Aymara and Quechua peoples. The gradual incorporation of European motifs into their garments did not alter the centrality of textiles to the value system of these indigenous communities.

Citation for this page

Hecht, Johanna. "Andean Textiles". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/adtx/hd_adtx.htm (October 2003)

Suggested Further Reading(s) Find these publications in a library

Phipps, Elena, et al. The Colonial Andes: Tapestries and Silverwork, 1530–1830. Exhibition catalogue. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.
Stone-Miller, Rebecca. To Weave for the Sun: Andean Textiles in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Exhibition catalogue. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1992.

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