2-741-187 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Sleeved Tunic, 1460s-1532. 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.