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Peruvian Featherworks: Art of the Precolumbian Era

King, Heidi, with essays by Mercedes Delgado, Mary Frame, Christine Giuntini, Johan Reinhard, Ann Pollard Rowe, and Santiago Uceda (2012)

This title is in print.

Description

Of universal appeal and unique beauty, feathers have for thousands of years been used by people in all parts of the world to adorn themselves and to animate their environment. Among traditional societies, feathers and objects embellished with feathers also have great cultural value and are imbued with spiritual energy and supernatural force. The feather arts of ancient Peru have been little investigated.

This publication summarizes what is currently known—on the basis of iconography, technical data, and the archaeological record—about this exquisite and unusual art form. The first essay surveys significant discoveries by archaeologists and reviews the evidence of featherworking in most of the known major Andean traditions: Paracas, ca. 600–100 bce; Nasca, ca. 100 bce–700 ce; Moche, ca. 100–800; Wari, ca. 600–1000; Sicán, Chancay, Chimú, ca. 1000–1470; and Inca, 1430–1534. Five essays by noted archaeologists and textile specialists explore important documented finds. These include rare discoveries such as male and female figurines wearing miniature feather headdresses, discovered on the summit of Mount Llullaillaco, the world's highest archaeological site; and a woman shaman inside an enormous bird-shaped effigy wrapped in a brilliantly colored feather shroud, found in the Inca Valley on Peru's South Coast. An essay on featherworking techniques and conservation further elucidates the subject. The plate section features nearly seventy examples of the feather arts predominantly from important museum collections—garments, headdresses, ornaments, and ritual objects—some ravishing, others charming and witty, many previously unpublished.

Table of contents

Director's Foreword
Thomas P. Campbell

Acknowledgments

Introduction
Heidi King

Feather Arts in Ancient Peru
Heidi King

Early Featherwork from Ocucaje
Ann Pollard Rowe

The Feathered Dresses of Cahuachi
Mary Frame

A Woman's Feathered Cloth from Cerrillos
Mercedes Delgado

Chimú Feathered Offerings from the Huaca de la Luna
Santiago Uceda and Heidi King

Sacred Featherwork of the Inca
Johan Reinhard

Techniques and Conservation of Peruvian Feather Mosaics
Christine Giuntini

Plates
Heidi King

Notes
Museum Collections with Significant Holdings in Featherworks Consulted for This Publication
Bibliography of Works Cited
Index
Photograph Credits

About the authors

Heidi King is Senior Research Associate in the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Mercedes Delgado is an archaeologist and Director of the Proyecto Archaeológico Cerrillos, Ica, Peru.

Mary Frame is an independent scholar specializing in Andean textiles.

Christine Giuntini is Conservator in the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

John Reinhard is Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society.

Ann Pollard Rowe is Research Associate of Western Hemisphere Textiles at The Textile Museum, Washington D.C.

Santiago Uceda is Director of the Proyecto Huaca de la Luna and Professor at the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Peru.

Press reviews

Guardian UK, The Birdbooker Report

"Peruvian Featherworks, a magnificently illustrated publication, is the first in-depth and authoritative review of featherworking traditions in Ancient Peru. Written by seven international experts in the textile arts and archaeology, the texts include a discussion of important recent discoveries, considerations of iconography, and basic technical characteristics of featherworks. Nearly seventy outstanding pieces are discussed, as well as evidence of feather mosaic on textiles and other media in most major Andean cultures, from the Paracas (about 600–100 B.C.) through the Inca (1470–1534)."

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