The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Special Exhibitions: Radiance from the Rain Forest: Featherwork in Ancient Peru

Radiance from the Rain Forest: Featherwork in Ancient Peru

		Neckpiece Chimú 13th–15th century Said to have been found in Ica, south coast Cotton, feathers, shell; 13 x 11 in. (33 x 27.9 cm) Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Fund (1972.23.McD)

From as early as the second half of the first millennium B.C., artists on Peru’s north coast produced a range of spectacular chest ornaments for the elite in luxury materials such as gold, silver, semiprecious stones, and shell. During the last few centuries before the Spanish conquest, when the Chimú ruled over much of the area, biblike pectorals were fashionable. On this rare neckpiece two techniques were used to attach the feathers to the plain weave backing: the red feathers, tied in strings, are sewn onto the fabric; the dark blue and turquoise feathers are glued on. The design motifs—fish, birds, a human figure, and faces wearing crescent headdresses—are symmetrical and consistent with north coast iconography of the period. The two birds and human heads at the top of the pectoral would have been seen the right way up when the pectoral was worn. Along the bottom is a short fringe with spondylus-shell beads.