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Radiance from the Rain Forest: Featherwork in Ancient Peru
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Tabard
Chimú 15th–16th century
Cotton, feathers; 58 3/8 x 25 in. (148.3 x 63.5 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Fletcher Fund, 1959 (59.135.8)
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Chimú artists of Peru's north coast made some of the finest featherworks in existence. After the Inka conquest of the kingdom of Chimor in the late fifteenth century, some of the best Chimú artists and craftsmen were relocated to the imperial Inka capital, Cusco, to work for nobility there. Several decades later, featherworks from the Americas sent back to Europe inspired European craftsmen, who admired and copied them particularly for the production of Christian works of art. Based on technical features of the cloth support, this tabard was made by Chimú artists. Like most of the surviving feather pieces from ancient Peru, however, it probably was found on the south coast, where conditions for the preservation of organic materials are favorable.
The design on this tabard is unusual and is not known elsewhere. The four figures with spread wings and tails may represent frontal views of birds with crescent headdresses.
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