Amano Museum - Chancay Textiles, Lima, Peru

The most well-known Chancay artefacts are the textiles which ranged from embroidered pieces, different types of fabrics decorated with paint. A variety of techniques, colours and themes were used in the making of textiles. They used an array of colours including yellows, browns, scarlet, white, blues and greens.

In type of fabric used include llama wool, cotton, chiffon, and feathers. Their technique involved were decorated open weave, brocade, embroidery, and painting. Brushes were used to paint anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, geometric and other creative designs directly on the canvases. The Chancay are known for the quality of their painted tapestries. The typically geometric designs also included drawings of plants, animals such as fish, cats, birds, monkeys and dogs (most notably the hairless Peruvian dog) as well as human figures. Some of the human fiber sculptures are elaborate and include such scenes as a mother teaching her daughter to weave on a backstrap loom. Birds and deities wearing crescent-like headdresses were one of the more common decorative features. They produced a variety of goods such as clothing, bags, and funeral masks.

Many Chancay textiles survive to date. It is believed that their production was quite extensive, due to the quantities that have been preserved. The quality of the textile material appears to be good as they were carefully made.

Fabrics or gauzes were used primarily for religious and magical purposes. They were made for covering the head of the dead in the form of a headdresses. According to the beliefs of the time, the threads on these fabrics had to be spun in the form of an "S" in an anticlockwise direction. This thread, which had a magical character, was called lloque and, according to legend, the garments were infused with supernatural powers and served as protection in the afterlife. Feathers were inserted into a main thread which was then sewn onto the fabric.

The Chancay also manufactured dolls and other objects covered with pieces of woven fabric and various threads.

Chancay culture The Chancay were a pre-Hispanic archeological civilization that developed between the valleys of Fortaleza, Pativilca, Supe, Huaura, Chancay, Chillón, Rimac and Lurín, on the central coast of Peru, from about 1000 to 1470 CE. Occupying the central coast coastal region of Peru, the Chancay were centered mostly in the Chancay and Chillón valleys, although they also occupied other areas such as the Rimac and Lurin valley areas. The center of the Chancay culture was located 80 kilometers north of Lima. It is a desert region but has fertile valleys bathed by rivers and is rich in resources that allowed for, among other things, extensive agricultural development. The Chancay developed intense trade relations with other regions, allowing them to interact with other cultures and settlements in a wide area.

1. Chancay fabrics

1.1 Chancay fabric

1.2 Chancay fabric

1.3 Chancay fabric

1.4 Chancay fabric

1.5 Chancay fabric

1.6 Chancay fabric

2. Simple and complex gauzes

Simple and complex gauzes Magic meshes. Among the most notable works of art from the Chancay culture are the meshes, which, according to their textile structure, can be identified as Gauzes or Reticulates. Both structures are made on a loom, formed by warps and wefts. Although the gauzes are formed in a similar way to a flat fabric, the warps do not run parallel on the fabric, but intertwine with each other, distancing the weft; generating a loose and complex fabric according to the manufacturer's wishes. Chancay meshes were made mainly in white cotton, using thin and super tight threads, making them curl up and creating highly elastic pieces. The dimensions of this type of piece correspond to 80 x 70 cm (31 x 27 in). See more at Gauze - Wikipedia.

2.1 Chancay gauze

2.2 Chancay gauze

2.3 Chancay gauze

2.4 Chancay gauze

2.5 Chancay gauze

3. The reticulates

The reticulates Three thousand years of fabric history. The reticular or reticulated fabric has a structure of square or rectangular meshes. Their warp and weft structure distinguishes them from more primitive structures such as nets, which are formed by a knot or intertwining of a single thread. Unlike gauzes, reticulates do not intersect their warps (vertical threads), these run in parallel pairs and the wefts (horizontal threads), which also run in pairs, are the elements that give the fabric a loose shape. From there, one of the horizontal threads crosses straight and the other ties the intersection, fixing the spaces that serve as the basis for the embroidered decoration that is made with an additional thread. The use of these meshes, as shown in some of the fabric dioramas found, corresponded to adornments for women's heads, whose technique and designs gave them protective qualities.

3.1 Chancay reticulate

3.2 Chancay reticulate

3.3 Chancay reticulate

3.4 Chancay reticulate

3.5 Chancay reticulate

3.6 Chancay reticulate

4. Double cloth

The double fabrics Reversible garments. This type of textile structure is achieved through the use of two sets of warps (vertical threads) and wefts (horizontal threads). They are all laid out in parallel and only the warps change position as the design is created. When placed one on top of the other, identical drawings are generated on both sides of the cloth, but with different colors, such as positive and negative. See more at Double cloth - Wikipedia.

4.1 Chancay double fabric

4.2 Chancay double fabrics

4.3 Chancay double fabrics

4.4 Chancay double fabric

5. Resist dyeing or shibori

Resist dyeing or shibori Painting with knots. This type of textile decoration was much appreciated in ancient Peru and is achieved by weaving a fabric of a natural color - lighter - into increasingly darker tones due to the addition of colors. To generate the designs, small knots were made on the surface of the canvas that "tightened" parts of the surface, preventing it from being dyed when submerged in hot water where the coloring substance had dissolved. Mr. Yoshitaro Amano has always highlighted the good workmanship and complex designs achieved with this technique for over 1800 years. See more at Shibori - Wikipedia.

5.1 Chancay resist dyeing fabrics

5.2 Chancay resist dyeing fabric

5.3 Chancay resist dyeing fabric

5.4 Chancay resist dyeing fabric

6. Painted fabrics

Painted fabrics Painting with brush. The tradition of painted fabrics is very old among archaeological materials, from pieces as old as the textiles found in Karwa (1000 years BCE), where the fearsome Chavin gods were represented, to the large Chancay works in pieces measuring up to 3 meters (10 feet), with minimalist and schematized designs. Two techniques were used for this type of decoration, hand painting and negative painting, where thick but water-soluble substances were applied, reserving spaces and painting in the free areas, then the canvas was washed leaving the final design.

6.1 Chancay painted fabric

6.2 Chancay painted fabrics

6.3 Chancay painted fabric

7. Patchwork

7.1 Chancay patchwork

7.2 Chancay patchwork

Chancay mantle

Large Chancay mantle

Dioramas

Diorama with fabric sculptures - Wedding Chancay artisans. 1100 CE - 1450 CE. Amazing piece of mixed material, recreation of everyday scene or ritual in Chancay’s world, scene show a house with 8 characters inside, the guests are sitting around 2 principals characters, in ritual they play music and drink, probably chicha. This piece is made in totora lined with cloth, with tapestry techniques, twill and plain cloth with diverse designs.

Diorama with fabric sculptures - Yunza Chancay artisans. 1100 CE - 1450 CE. Representation of a ceremony similar to the current Yunza. The Yunza ceremony is celebrated by communities in the Andean areas of Peru, such as Ayacucho, Puno, Cajamarca and Huaraz. The word (which means “hill-cutting” in Quechua, one of the official languages of that country), defines the ritual that consists of felling a tree to harvest its fruits. Pieces like this capture important moments in Chancay community life and were placed as offerings in the most important tombs.

See also

• Amano Museum Textiles in 2024-05

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Source

• Xxxx - Wikipedia

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Location