Cloth with Procession of Figures (Q60740770)

Label from: English (en)

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collection: Cleveland Museum of Art (Q657415)
location: Cleveland Museum of Art (Q657415)
material used: cotton (Q11457) pigment (Q161179) camelid fiber (Q64175838)
fabrication method: textile painting (Q43111615)
time period: Early Intermediate Period (Q5492123)
depicts: procession (Q898830)
instance of: textile artwork (Q22075301) textile (Q28823)

catalog URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1940.530

information from the Cleveland Museum of Art catalog

description: Experts agree that this cloth is one of the greatest paintings to survive from Andean antiquity due to the realism, complexity, large size, and refined execution of its figures. All but one of the figures wear the whiskered mouth mask of Nasca supernatural beings and several carry or wear severed human heads, which the Nasca linked to nature’s fruitfulness. Thus, the figures seem to represent supernatural forces or humans personifying such forces during a ritual devoted to agricultural fertility. Originally, the panel was attached along its upper edge to a dark blue cloth of equal size. The complete textile may have served as a mantle (a shawl-like garment), a hanging, or a funerary offering.

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