Peru, Nazca
700 to 900 AD
Cotton, camelid fiber
Height 26 in (66 cm), Width 29 in (73.7 cm) including mount; textile 19 x 20 in (48.3 x 50.8 cm)
Provenance: Private collection, Albuquerque, NM, prior to 1964
The Nazca culture of the south coast of Peru produced some of the most technically accomplished textiles in the ancient Americas, weaving with cotton and camelid fiber in complex interlocking patterns that carried iconographic significance within a richly developed visual system. This fragment, dating to 700 to 900 AD, displays the dense geometric patterning characteristic of late Nazca textile production, the repeating stepped and angular motifs worked across the surface in the warm earth tones produced by the natural fiber palette of the region. The pre-1964 Albuquerque provenance places this piece firmly within the generation of collecting that preceded modern cultural property legislation, a significant provenance marker for Pre-Columbian material.
Nazca textiles of this age and condition are uncommon in the private market, the majority having passed into institutional collections during the twentieth century. The geometric vocabulary of this fragment reflects the visual conventions of the Nazca horizon across multiple media including ceramics, ground drawings, and textiles, in which repeating angular forms carried cosmological and ritual meaning. This example, well-preserved and cleanly mounted, represents a direct connection to one of the most sophisticated pre-Columbian cultures of the Andean coast.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Peru, Nazca
700 to 900 AD
Cotton, camelid fiber
Height 26 in (66 cm), Width 29 in (73.7 cm) including mount; textile 19 x 20 in (48.3 x 50.8 cm)
Provenance: Private collection, Albuquerque, NM, prior to 1964
The Nazca culture of the south coast of Peru produced some of the most technically accomplished textiles in the ancient Americas, weaving with cotton and camelid fiber in complex interlocking patterns that carried iconographic significance within a richly developed visual system. This fragment, dating to 700 to 900 AD, displays the dense geometric patterning characteristic of late Nazca textile production, the repeating stepped and angular motifs worked across the surface in the warm earth tones produced by the natural fiber palette of the region. The pre-1964 Albuquerque provenance places this piece firmly within the generation of collecting that preceded modern cultural property legislation, a significant provenance marker for Pre-Columbian material.
Nazca textiles of this age and condition are uncommon in the private market, the majority having passed into institutional collections during the twentieth century. The geometric vocabulary of this fragment reflects the visual conventions of the Nazca horizon across multiple media including ceramics, ground drawings, and textiles, in which repeating angular forms carried cosmological and ritual meaning. This example, well-preserved and cleanly mounted, represents a direct connection to one of the most sophisticated pre-Columbian cultures of the Andean coast.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
