Elena Phipps | University of California, Los Angeles (original) (raw)
Papers by Elena Phipps
Textile Museum Journal, Dec 1, 2020
Support for volume 47 of The Textile Museum Journal is generously provided by the Cotsen Textile ... more Support for volume 47 of The Textile Museum Journal is generously provided by the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection Endowment, David W. and Barbara G. Fraser, and the Markarian Foundation. The museum is grafeful for their support and commitment to advancing textile scholarship.
... The integration of the textile information into a study of the site, in relation to the ceram... more ... The integration of the textile information into a study of the site, in relation to the ceramic seriation, is attempted for a fuller understanding ... Strong Cahuachi collection in this present research project has yielded the diagnostic tool for the identification of a 'Cahuachi type' of simple ...
Colonial Latin American Review, 2006
In the Fall of 2004 the Metropolitan Museum of Art presented several special exhibitions of excep... more In the Fall of 2004 the Metropolitan Museum of Art presented several special exhibitions of exceptionally fine and intricately crafted objects and textiles from various parts of the world including Asia (‘China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200 /750 AD’), Europe (‘Princely Splendor: The Dresden Court: 1580 /1620’), and South America (‘The Colonial Andes: Tapestries and Silverwork, 1530 /1830’). The most surprising show in terms of the Met’s collection and exhibition history was ‘Colonial Andes.’ In the context of the Museum’s encyclopedic collections, the term Andes is almost exclusively associated with pre-Columbian art. Although the Met does have a small collection of Latin American colonial art, the works are held by several different departments, and are rarely on display. I bring this up not to add to the complaints about the absence of Latin America arts in US museums*/a situation that is rapidly changing*/but to emphasize the extent to which ‘Colonial Andes’ was truly a groundbreaking exhibition. In addition to being a ‘first’ for the Met, it was innovative in its focus on a single viceroyalty and, within that region, on just two artistic media. Although tapestries and silverwork were ‘interrelated parts of a complex system of meanings and values’ in Inca society (contributor Thomas Cummins 5), viceregal examples of these arts have traditionally been studied and exhibited separately. Experts on colonial textiles tend to be Andeanists, familiar with indigenous cultural traditions, whereas scholars of colonial silverwork bring a European decorative arts perspective to their studies. By presenting outstanding examples of tapestries and silverwork together, ‘Colonial Andes’ provided an unprecedented opportunity to consider these arts in relation to each other as well as within their own media-specific contexts.
A. Peck, editor The Interwoven Globe: Worldwide Textile Trade 1500-1800. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 120-135, 2013
The significance of small things: essays in honour of Diane Fane, 2018, ISBN 978-84-947466-5-9, págs. 143-149, 2018
The Interwoven Globe: textile trade in the 16th-18th centuries, 2015
D y e s a n D t h e D y e t r a D e b Elena Phipps n September 1766 the Spanish frigate El Nuevo ... more D y e s a n D t h e D y e t r a D e b Elena Phipps n September 1766 the Spanish frigate El Nuevo Constante, bound for the port of Cádiz, ran into a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico and sank. 1 Part of an annual flotilla that traversed the Atlantic from the New World to Spain (see fig. 27), the ship had left Veracruz, Mexico, laden with valuable goods such as silver, copper, and gold. 2 In addition to precious metals, however, the ship's cargo contained a relatively new form of wealth: raw materials for the flourishing global trade in dyestuffs, including 2,896 pounds of indigo, 10,627 pounds of cochineal, 5,440 pounds of annatto, and 1,032 cut lengths of logwood weighing approximately 40,000 pounds (figs. 107, 108). 3 As the manifest of the Nuevo Constante makes clear, dyes and colorants were among the first and most valued of the exotic products that stimulated long-distance trade across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans beginning at the end of the fifteenth century. Within this global network, indigo from India was exported to England, France, Italy, and the Netherlands, ultimately transforming the European textile and printing industries. 4 After indigo was discovered in Central and South America, the species native there was also extensively exported both within the American colonies and, by the sixteenth century, to Europe as well. 5 Cochineal, an insect used to make a brilliant red dye, was shipped from the Americas to Europe, Asia, and the Middle East over both land and sea routes. 6 Bernardino de Sahagún (1499-1590), a Franciscan friar active in Mexico in the mid-sixteenth century, observed that cochineal "is known in this land and beyond and there are great quantities of it [sent] to China and then to Turkey and from there all around the world, [where] it is appreciated and highly desired" (fig. 109). 7 Tropical dyewood trees such as the logwood that sank aboard the Nuevo Constante were another important source of color on the international market. In addition to certain species from Southeast Asia and India that had been valued commodities in Europe since antiquity, a motherload of related dyewoods was discovered in the Americas in the sixteenth century, significantly accelerating the growth of European textile industries (see detail p. 120; fig. 110). 8 The crimson reds, deep blues, and wide range of purples, grays, and blacks achieved with these dyestuffs-raw materials that previously had been either unavailable to European dyers or found only in small quantities, and even then for high prices-were quickly incorporated into the palettes of the royal workshops of Spain and France and the extensive British and Dutch dyeworks. Arriving via carracks and frigates (and occasionally through pirate activity in the Atlantic) to the trading entrepôts of Lisbon, Seville, Antwerp, and London, they were then reshipped and distributed throughout Europe via local trade fairs and, after passing through other points of exchange, around the world. Access to large quantities of foreign dyestuffs stimulated the transformation of the European textile industry into the center of what was becoming a truly global commercial network. Beginning in 1565, the fleet of Spanish ships known as the Manila galleons opened trade across the Pacific, sending silver mined in the Americas to Asia, where it was exchanged for Chinese silks and other goods. The silk was then shipped via the Philippines to Mexico and Peru and thence to Europe, resulting in a surge in the consumption of silk there and in the American colonies. Silk, which is easy to dye with an array of dyestuffs, arrived in Europe and Latin America either as undyed raw silk, cloth, or thread ready to be processed or as a finished textile already dyed and patterned with Asian colorants, including brilliant, fast yellows and highly saturated safflower pinks. Safflower had been used in China since at least the sixth century and was already known in Europe, having been introduced to Spain (where it was later cultivated) by the Arab rulers of Al-Andalus in the eighth century. It was eventually used in England to supply the color for the red tape used to tie legal documents, hence the phrase "red tape" to describe a cumbersome bureaucracy. 9 I
Source: Notes in the History of Art, 2010
The abundance of gold and silver objects used in the Andes amazed the Spanish con quistadors when... more The abundance of gold and silver objects used in the Andes amazed the Spanish con quistadors when they encountered the Inca civilization in 1532. Upon entering the city of Cuzco, the Inca capital, for example, they found the famous Coricancha (the "golden enclosure"), the Inca Temple of the Sun, whose walls were lined with gold and con tained a garden of life-sized stalks of corn made of silver.1 For the Inca, while gold and silver were highly valued for their meta physical qualities, generally associated with ancestral worship and imperial leadership, textiles were among the most prized material objects in their empire.2 Indeed, the double faced tapestry-weave products of the cumbi camayo, or master weavers of the Inca royal workshops, remain unsurpassed: perfectly finished on both sides, such cloth generally had hundreds of yarns per inch of weaving.3 Garments of Inca kings and nobles made from such cloth (referred to as cumbi) were sometimes embellished with appliqued or naments cut from hammered sheets of pre cious metals and sewn onto the surface,4 but the actual weaving with silver or gold was unknown in the pre-Columbian era. Metallic yarns were introduced into the weaving tra ditions of the Andes in the sixteenth century, after Spanish administrators and church of ficials began commissioning from native weavers tapestries derived from European models.5
Oxford Handbooks Online, 2018
The Inca developed and perfected a special type and quality of weaving that was the hallmark of t... more The Inca developed and perfected a special type and quality of weaving that was the hallmark of their garment-making tradition. Textiles made of high-quality tapestry (cumbi) embodied the Inca aesthetic as a political and cultural force. In the colonial period, these Inca attributes were transformed and adapted in new directions: some self-referential, overt expressions of rebellion against colonial viceregal rule, others more acquiescent to the new social order. During festivals and other celebratory events, such garments were worn as part of a “theater” of Inca heritage. The garments, including the tocapu designs, were part of complex cultural interactions and contributed to expressions of status and identity in the Andes.
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2022
Zea Books, 2017
The development of rich and complex Andean textile traditions spanned millennia, in concert with ... more The development of rich and complex Andean textile traditions spanned millennia, in concert with the development of cultures that utilized textiles as a primary form of expression and communication. Understanding the importance of textiles in the Andean world, we can examine elements of their genesis and look at the trajectory from the earliest developments of fiber-made items to the extraordinarily complex and specific processes of textile making, such as warp-wrapping and discontinuous warp and weft weaving. These processes are examined in the context of the relationship between textiles and the sacred, highlighting the significance and agency of cloth in part through the creation of the unique methods of their construction, which constitute systems of knowledge underscored in the material and materiality of the media.
In 1783, on behalf of the King of Spain, Charles III, Jose de Galvez, Head of the Council of the ... more In 1783, on behalf of the King of Spain, Charles III, Jose de Galvez, Head of the Council of the Indias (the governing body for all of the Spanish colonies) requested a report on the state of the silk textile industry in Mexico. At that time, silk fabric, its use, production and trade was an important aspect of Colonial life in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and in fact throughout the Spanish Americas 1. Silk-as the primary luxury fiber throughout the world-penetrated all areas of Colonial society-both in the form of locally made fabrics as visible in the portrait painting of Sor Sebastiana Ines (Fig. 1) wearing an indigenous back-strap woven huipil whose patterning appears as silk, as well as high style fashion garments made of imported fabrics and ribbons worn by the Peninsulares and Criollos of the upper classes in the highly stratified caste system that composed Colonial New Spain in the 18 th century.
In 1998, the Metropolitan received the John B. Elliott Bequest that included, among other items, ... more In 1998, the Metropolitan received the John B. Elliott Bequest that included, among other items, approximately 296 ethnographic textiles from Peru, Bolivia and Chile, as well as basketry, beadwork and shell ornaments from the Amazon, Indonesia and Africa. 6 The garment is fifty-five and one half inches in width at the top, across the shoulder-line, tapering to thirty-nine and one half inches at the lower edge. 7 Material and Technical information: Dimensions 35 ¼"H x 55 ½" W, Materials: Camelid hair, feathers, Furcroya. Weave: Warp-faced plain weave with discontinuous warp and warp-float patterning [in 3 span float alignment] Discontinuous warp yarns are dovetailed around a scaffolding weft, woven with two weft shuttles. Warp yarns: red, purple, green, white, blue, yellow camelid hair: 48-72 per inch. /\. Weft: dark brown camelid hair (vicuna or alpaca) /\ 16 per inch. Embroidery: brown camelid used single / and also /\. Four Feather clusters: One is tied with Camelid hair cord and three are Furcoya-type fiber cord.
Textile Museum Journal, Dec 1, 2020
Support for volume 47 of The Textile Museum Journal is generously provided by the Cotsen Textile ... more Support for volume 47 of The Textile Museum Journal is generously provided by the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection Endowment, David W. and Barbara G. Fraser, and the Markarian Foundation. The museum is grafeful for their support and commitment to advancing textile scholarship.
... The integration of the textile information into a study of the site, in relation to the ceram... more ... The integration of the textile information into a study of the site, in relation to the ceramic seriation, is attempted for a fuller understanding ... Strong Cahuachi collection in this present research project has yielded the diagnostic tool for the identification of a 'Cahuachi type' of simple ...
Colonial Latin American Review, 2006
In the Fall of 2004 the Metropolitan Museum of Art presented several special exhibitions of excep... more In the Fall of 2004 the Metropolitan Museum of Art presented several special exhibitions of exceptionally fine and intricately crafted objects and textiles from various parts of the world including Asia (‘China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200 /750 AD’), Europe (‘Princely Splendor: The Dresden Court: 1580 /1620’), and South America (‘The Colonial Andes: Tapestries and Silverwork, 1530 /1830’). The most surprising show in terms of the Met’s collection and exhibition history was ‘Colonial Andes.’ In the context of the Museum’s encyclopedic collections, the term Andes is almost exclusively associated with pre-Columbian art. Although the Met does have a small collection of Latin American colonial art, the works are held by several different departments, and are rarely on display. I bring this up not to add to the complaints about the absence of Latin America arts in US museums*/a situation that is rapidly changing*/but to emphasize the extent to which ‘Colonial Andes’ was truly a groundbreaking exhibition. In addition to being a ‘first’ for the Met, it was innovative in its focus on a single viceroyalty and, within that region, on just two artistic media. Although tapestries and silverwork were ‘interrelated parts of a complex system of meanings and values’ in Inca society (contributor Thomas Cummins 5), viceregal examples of these arts have traditionally been studied and exhibited separately. Experts on colonial textiles tend to be Andeanists, familiar with indigenous cultural traditions, whereas scholars of colonial silverwork bring a European decorative arts perspective to their studies. By presenting outstanding examples of tapestries and silverwork together, ‘Colonial Andes’ provided an unprecedented opportunity to consider these arts in relation to each other as well as within their own media-specific contexts.
A. Peck, editor The Interwoven Globe: Worldwide Textile Trade 1500-1800. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 120-135, 2013
The significance of small things: essays in honour of Diane Fane, 2018, ISBN 978-84-947466-5-9, págs. 143-149, 2018
The Interwoven Globe: textile trade in the 16th-18th centuries, 2015
D y e s a n D t h e D y e t r a D e b Elena Phipps n September 1766 the Spanish frigate El Nuevo ... more D y e s a n D t h e D y e t r a D e b Elena Phipps n September 1766 the Spanish frigate El Nuevo Constante, bound for the port of Cádiz, ran into a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico and sank. 1 Part of an annual flotilla that traversed the Atlantic from the New World to Spain (see fig. 27), the ship had left Veracruz, Mexico, laden with valuable goods such as silver, copper, and gold. 2 In addition to precious metals, however, the ship's cargo contained a relatively new form of wealth: raw materials for the flourishing global trade in dyestuffs, including 2,896 pounds of indigo, 10,627 pounds of cochineal, 5,440 pounds of annatto, and 1,032 cut lengths of logwood weighing approximately 40,000 pounds (figs. 107, 108). 3 As the manifest of the Nuevo Constante makes clear, dyes and colorants were among the first and most valued of the exotic products that stimulated long-distance trade across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans beginning at the end of the fifteenth century. Within this global network, indigo from India was exported to England, France, Italy, and the Netherlands, ultimately transforming the European textile and printing industries. 4 After indigo was discovered in Central and South America, the species native there was also extensively exported both within the American colonies and, by the sixteenth century, to Europe as well. 5 Cochineal, an insect used to make a brilliant red dye, was shipped from the Americas to Europe, Asia, and the Middle East over both land and sea routes. 6 Bernardino de Sahagún (1499-1590), a Franciscan friar active in Mexico in the mid-sixteenth century, observed that cochineal "is known in this land and beyond and there are great quantities of it [sent] to China and then to Turkey and from there all around the world, [where] it is appreciated and highly desired" (fig. 109). 7 Tropical dyewood trees such as the logwood that sank aboard the Nuevo Constante were another important source of color on the international market. In addition to certain species from Southeast Asia and India that had been valued commodities in Europe since antiquity, a motherload of related dyewoods was discovered in the Americas in the sixteenth century, significantly accelerating the growth of European textile industries (see detail p. 120; fig. 110). 8 The crimson reds, deep blues, and wide range of purples, grays, and blacks achieved with these dyestuffs-raw materials that previously had been either unavailable to European dyers or found only in small quantities, and even then for high prices-were quickly incorporated into the palettes of the royal workshops of Spain and France and the extensive British and Dutch dyeworks. Arriving via carracks and frigates (and occasionally through pirate activity in the Atlantic) to the trading entrepôts of Lisbon, Seville, Antwerp, and London, they were then reshipped and distributed throughout Europe via local trade fairs and, after passing through other points of exchange, around the world. Access to large quantities of foreign dyestuffs stimulated the transformation of the European textile industry into the center of what was becoming a truly global commercial network. Beginning in 1565, the fleet of Spanish ships known as the Manila galleons opened trade across the Pacific, sending silver mined in the Americas to Asia, where it was exchanged for Chinese silks and other goods. The silk was then shipped via the Philippines to Mexico and Peru and thence to Europe, resulting in a surge in the consumption of silk there and in the American colonies. Silk, which is easy to dye with an array of dyestuffs, arrived in Europe and Latin America either as undyed raw silk, cloth, or thread ready to be processed or as a finished textile already dyed and patterned with Asian colorants, including brilliant, fast yellows and highly saturated safflower pinks. Safflower had been used in China since at least the sixth century and was already known in Europe, having been introduced to Spain (where it was later cultivated) by the Arab rulers of Al-Andalus in the eighth century. It was eventually used in England to supply the color for the red tape used to tie legal documents, hence the phrase "red tape" to describe a cumbersome bureaucracy. 9 I
Source: Notes in the History of Art, 2010
The abundance of gold and silver objects used in the Andes amazed the Spanish con quistadors when... more The abundance of gold and silver objects used in the Andes amazed the Spanish con quistadors when they encountered the Inca civilization in 1532. Upon entering the city of Cuzco, the Inca capital, for example, they found the famous Coricancha (the "golden enclosure"), the Inca Temple of the Sun, whose walls were lined with gold and con tained a garden of life-sized stalks of corn made of silver.1 For the Inca, while gold and silver were highly valued for their meta physical qualities, generally associated with ancestral worship and imperial leadership, textiles were among the most prized material objects in their empire.2 Indeed, the double faced tapestry-weave products of the cumbi camayo, or master weavers of the Inca royal workshops, remain unsurpassed: perfectly finished on both sides, such cloth generally had hundreds of yarns per inch of weaving.3 Garments of Inca kings and nobles made from such cloth (referred to as cumbi) were sometimes embellished with appliqued or naments cut from hammered sheets of pre cious metals and sewn onto the surface,4 but the actual weaving with silver or gold was unknown in the pre-Columbian era. Metallic yarns were introduced into the weaving tra ditions of the Andes in the sixteenth century, after Spanish administrators and church of ficials began commissioning from native weavers tapestries derived from European models.5
Oxford Handbooks Online, 2018
The Inca developed and perfected a special type and quality of weaving that was the hallmark of t... more The Inca developed and perfected a special type and quality of weaving that was the hallmark of their garment-making tradition. Textiles made of high-quality tapestry (cumbi) embodied the Inca aesthetic as a political and cultural force. In the colonial period, these Inca attributes were transformed and adapted in new directions: some self-referential, overt expressions of rebellion against colonial viceregal rule, others more acquiescent to the new social order. During festivals and other celebratory events, such garments were worn as part of a “theater” of Inca heritage. The garments, including the tocapu designs, were part of complex cultural interactions and contributed to expressions of status and identity in the Andes.
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2022
Zea Books, 2017
The development of rich and complex Andean textile traditions spanned millennia, in concert with ... more The development of rich and complex Andean textile traditions spanned millennia, in concert with the development of cultures that utilized textiles as a primary form of expression and communication. Understanding the importance of textiles in the Andean world, we can examine elements of their genesis and look at the trajectory from the earliest developments of fiber-made items to the extraordinarily complex and specific processes of textile making, such as warp-wrapping and discontinuous warp and weft weaving. These processes are examined in the context of the relationship between textiles and the sacred, highlighting the significance and agency of cloth in part through the creation of the unique methods of their construction, which constitute systems of knowledge underscored in the material and materiality of the media.
In 1783, on behalf of the King of Spain, Charles III, Jose de Galvez, Head of the Council of the ... more In 1783, on behalf of the King of Spain, Charles III, Jose de Galvez, Head of the Council of the Indias (the governing body for all of the Spanish colonies) requested a report on the state of the silk textile industry in Mexico. At that time, silk fabric, its use, production and trade was an important aspect of Colonial life in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and in fact throughout the Spanish Americas 1. Silk-as the primary luxury fiber throughout the world-penetrated all areas of Colonial society-both in the form of locally made fabrics as visible in the portrait painting of Sor Sebastiana Ines (Fig. 1) wearing an indigenous back-strap woven huipil whose patterning appears as silk, as well as high style fashion garments made of imported fabrics and ribbons worn by the Peninsulares and Criollos of the upper classes in the highly stratified caste system that composed Colonial New Spain in the 18 th century.
In 1998, the Metropolitan received the John B. Elliott Bequest that included, among other items, ... more In 1998, the Metropolitan received the John B. Elliott Bequest that included, among other items, approximately 296 ethnographic textiles from Peru, Bolivia and Chile, as well as basketry, beadwork and shell ornaments from the Amazon, Indonesia and Africa. 6 The garment is fifty-five and one half inches in width at the top, across the shoulder-line, tapering to thirty-nine and one half inches at the lower edge. 7 Material and Technical information: Dimensions 35 ¼"H x 55 ½" W, Materials: Camelid hair, feathers, Furcroya. Weave: Warp-faced plain weave with discontinuous warp and warp-float patterning [in 3 span float alignment] Discontinuous warp yarns are dovetailed around a scaffolding weft, woven with two weft shuttles. Warp yarns: red, purple, green, white, blue, yellow camelid hair: 48-72 per inch. /\. Weft: dark brown camelid hair (vicuna or alpaca) /\ 16 per inch. Embroidery: brown camelid used single / and also /\. Four Feather clusters: One is tied with Camelid hair cord and three are Furcoya-type fiber cord.
Helen Mills, ed., Silver: Travelling Light. London: London Academy, 2023
Dyes in History and Archaeology, 2023
Transpacific Engagement, 2022
The desire throughout Europe and the Americas for finely woven, colorfully decorated, and glazed ... more The desire throughout Europe and the Americas for finely woven, colorfully decorated, and glazed cotton muslin (chintz) from India and lightweight gossamer silk from China fueled much of the global trade networks in the early modern period. 1 The import of these textiles into both the Americas and Europe through the annual flotillas that traversed the Pacific and Atlantic routes created complex economic and artistic relationships among European, American, and Asian makers and users of textiles that impacted production geared towards new tastes and introduced specialized textile traditions into new regions. This essay explores some of these cross-cultural complexities with particular reference to the primary material sources of fabrics. This discussion includes an examination of silk and its introduction into Mexico via Spain, as well as Asia. It also traces the lesser-known use and trade in the Americas of cloth from the Philippines made of fibers from the native wild banana and the transplanted piña, concluding with an outline of areas for future study.
The Significance of Small Things: Essays in Honor of Diana Fane, 2018
Gerhard Wolf, Joseph Connors and Louis A. Waldman, eds. Colors between Two Worlds. Villa I Tatti, Florence. Harvard University Press, Cambridge. Pp. 256-280., 2012
Colonial Andes: Tapestries and Silverwork, 1530-1830, 2004
Chapter from COLONIAL ANDES 2004 Publication. This is a low res pdf but the whole book can be do... more Chapter from COLONIAL ANDES 2004 Publication.
This is a low res pdf but the whole book can be downloaded in high res from the Metropolitan Museum website.
Colonial Andes: Tapestries and Silverwork, 1530-1830, 2004
This is a pdf of the essay in the COLONIAL ANDES: TAPESTRIES AND SILVERWORK 1530-1830, MMA 2004. ... more This is a pdf of the essay in the COLONIAL ANDES: TAPESTRIES AND SILVERWORK 1530-1830, MMA 2004.
The entire book can be downloaded from the MMA website in a higher res version.
See link.
A. Peck, editor The Interwoven Globe: Worldwide Textile Trade 1500-1800. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art., 2013
Chapter From INTERWOVEN GLOBE
A. Peck, editor The Interwoven Globe: Worldwide Textile Trade 1500-1800. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 120-135, 2013
b Elena Phipps n 1494, with the Treaty of Tordesillas, Pope Alexander VI divided the world beyond... more b Elena Phipps n 1494, with the Treaty of Tordesillas, Pope Alexander VI divided the world beyond the borders of Europe into two: half for Spain and half for Portugal, "like an orange," according to a letter written to Charles V ten years later. 1 The demarcation of the division, adjusted over time, lay along a certain meridian passing through the Atlantic Ocean: the lands to the west encompassing most of the Americas were for Spain, and the lands to the east, including Africa, India, Asia, and part of Brazil, were for Portugal ( ). This monumental treaty signified the fundamental role that these two powers would play during the ensuing years in establishing a global context for textiles and trade. In the Americas, the different approaches to the process of colonialization and trade taken by the Spanish and the Portuguese, in concert with the indigenous response and engagement, resulted in divergent courses of social, political, and economic development from the sixteenth through the eighteenth century.
In this beautifully illustrated book, textile expert Elena Phipps examines the ancient Peruvian p... more In this beautifully illustrated book, textile expert Elena Phipps examines the ancient Peruvian process of weaving textiles with four finished selvages, or edges. Without cutting a thread, master Peruvian weavers wove each textile to the specifications of its intended use, whether a child's garment, royal mantle, or ritual cloth. This weaving technique required the highest level of skill and forethought and reflects a high cultural value placed on maintaining the integrity of cloth-not only its design and function but also the very way in which it was constructed. The resultant textiles have long been admired for their mastery of color, technique, and design. While exploring the origins and development of this approach to weaving, Phipps also examines its influence on three contemporary artists-Sheila Hicks, James Bassler, and John Cohen-all of whom have considered ancient Peruvian weaving processes in their own work.
You can download the full publication high res freely from the Metropolitan Museum of Art website... more You can download the full publication high res freely from the Metropolitan Museum of Art website. See link
TSA 2020 SYMPOSIUM PROCEEDINGS, 2021
Introduction Our understanding of the choices weavers make in the use of specialized materials co... more Introduction Our understanding of the choices weavers make in the use of specialized materials comes from the investigation of both the cultural significance of their source, and their physical identification. In this paper, we will present the historical context for the use of special fibers from the viscacha-a rodent related to chinchilla-and examine the cultural significance of the animal in Andean history, while developing scientific methods through proteomic analysis to enable their identification in a selected group of museum textiles. 1 This kind of collaborative work draws on the interface between art history and archaeology, ethnohistory, conservation and science and underscores the importance of material-based studies within the complex matrix of art, culture and society. Part 1: Cultural Context The viscacha is a small animal related to the chinchilla, that has a long tail, tall ears, whiskers and extremely soft body hair and lives in the highland regions of the Andes. (Fig. 1) It is one of the exotic animal hairs, along with jaguar, puma and wild guanaco, thought to have been used in Peru for special items, though rarely included in discussions of Andean fibers which generally are centered around the predominance of camelids and cottons. The chinchillidae family is a small family of only three genera: the Chinchilla genus, the Lagidium genus and the Lagostomus genus. 2 Chinchilla and Lagidium are native to the Andes mountains that include parts of Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and Chile. 3 The two main species of mountain viscacha are the northern viscacha (Lagidium peruanum) and the southern viscacha (Lagidium viscacia) with a few more species and sub-species. The plains viscacha (Lagostomus maximus), the only living species within the genus Lagostomus, is found in Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay. The ranges of mountain and plains viscacha do not overlap. 3 1 The research project has taken place over a number of years, and through a number of phases-we are most grateful to our colleagues who have contributed to the study with their own additions and sightings of potential samples for investigation. The authors wish to thank our colleagues who contributed to the project including:
