Sleeved Tunic

1460s-1532

Sleeved Tunic, 1460s-1532. Central Andes, central coast, Chancay people. Cotton, camelid fiber; length back of neck to hem: 40.6 cm (16 in.); width across shoulders: 128.9 cm (50 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2017.193 The Chancay people of Peru’s central coast created one of the ancient Andes best-known textile legacies—artistically elaborate tunics and loincloths worn by men, women’s dresses and head cloths, and shawl-like mantles. Two traits indicate that this tunic is a high-prestige garment: its labor-intensive tapestry technique and its copious use of alpaca fiber, imported from the adjacent highlands and here dyed in a pleasing pink-and-gold palette.