Page 284 - Perú indígena y virreinal

and its blue and yellow varieties (Ara ararauna). These feathers were delicately knotted to cotton threads in order to create strings of feathers that were fixed to the support in the form of a mosaic, whilst the feathers that made up the crest were fixed by using a different technique which held them upright and firmly in place.
Faithful depictions of birds such as these, native to the tropical jungle, as well as toucans and parrots in the iconography of the Coast, provide testimony to the existence of a series of important trading routes running from North to South and from East to West across the Andean region, supplying indigenous raw materials from a varied range of ecosystems (the coast, the high plateau, the jungle).
AN EXPLOSION OF COLOUR: TEXTILES AND MURAL PAINTINGS
In the same way as metal work, the manufacture of clothing such as that which, according to the Ñaymlap legend, Llapchiluli decorated, formed part of a long handcrafted production chain. This included spinning, dying, weaving, sewing and, on occasion, ornamentation by means of embroidery and feather or metal appliqué-work. These activities were carried out in craftsmen’s workshops under the supervision of master craftsmen, or at least this is how the figures seated on benches in the weaving scene depicted on a well-known Moche vase have been interpreted.
Thanks to this iconographic source, we know what the looms employed in this workshops were like, the preferred type in this case being the backstrap loom, which is still used in the majority of the native communities of Meso-America and the Andean region. Alongside the weavers, who are seated under structures reminiscent of porches or shelters, we can see a number of pottery vessels and small textiles hanging on the wall that must have served as models and patterns for their designs. Thanks to the illustrations produced by Guamán Poma de Ayala and a sculptural depiction on a “whistling” vessel, we know that there were another two types used for producing larger textiles.
The spinning process was carried out with distaffs and spindles endowed with counterweights, using both cotton (on the coast up to six different natural colours were produced) as well as wool from the genus Camelidae (llama wool for the roughest textiles, alpaca wool for fine clothing and vicuña for the innovative and extremely fine Nasca embroidery).
However, perhaps the most striking aspect of Andean textile production was the originality of the designs and the successful combination of colours it presented. In this respect, an extensive variety of colours was employed, such as indigo, cochineal scarlet and purple, as well as other pigments of mineral origin, with which they obtained various colours and shades depending on the dying process and the colour fixatives.
The finest textiles, known by the name of cumpi, were made by individuals of high standing. Those destined for the Inca and the divinities were produced by the acllacuna or “the chosen”, the daughters of important lords. These royal clothing items (uncus and acsos) presented designs of complex symbolism (tocapus) and exclusive colour combinations. Sometimes they were woven with gold and silver thread and decorated with feathers and chaquiras or metal beads.
Thus, we can observe how in Ancient Peru some of the most refined items destined for the royal circle and the divinities were produced by artists who belonged to an élite class. This was not exclusive to the Andean cultures, given that other research such as that carried out within the Maya region has revealed the existence of rooms reserved for the activities of artists and craftsmen within palace-like complexes, where a number of traces were also recorded relating to woven items and colour technology (Inomata, 2001). A belief may have existed that the transformation of the raw materials employed to produce items of exceptional beauty and high symbolic value involved the intervention of a supernatural power solely reserved for members of the élite levels of society.
The dryness of the Peruvian climate has enabled many of these textiles, the majority from funeral bundles, to be preserved in excellent condition, with the most spectacular being those of Paracas, Nasca and Huari, whose designs and production techniques were adopted by the weavers of Tawantinsuyo, adapting them to the political interests of the Inca rulers. Their exceptional colouring is also reflected by the keros or conical wooden
cups that are so characteristic of Inca art, on which encaustic paintings of warriors and other figures portrayed in striking dress were produced.
Colour also played a highly important role in the mural paintings that decorated the monumental architecture of Ancient Peru, the most comprehensive study of which has been carried out by Duccio Bonavia (1985). These are tempera paintings and not frescoes, as has been suggested at some stage. Before the paint was applied, a thin layer or white ground was spread over the whitewash, probably with a stone trowel. Once the pictorial study had been completed, the paint could be applied directly over this white layer (Lima style) or the outlines of the desired images could be made by means of a series of incisions, which were then coloured in, a method known as the Moche style.
The palette of colours was extremely comprehensive, especially in the case of the Moche style, with the favourite shades being red, yellow and blue. With these hues, Moche painters created narrative sequences in which the figures they depicted seemed to float in indefinite space. These were generally human figures painted to a natural scale, set within compositions that differed quite substantially from the rigid representations of supernatural beings and monsters carved on the walls of Chavin-style buildings or modelled in the friezes of Garagay. Among the most famous paintings we might mention the mural depictions of Pañamarca and the “rebellion of artifacts” at Huaca de la Luna, as well as the processions of warriors and prisoners that run round the walls of these buildings and that of Huaca Cao Viejo.
Under Huari rule, in accordance with Tiwanako trends, these scenes were framed in such a way that the iconographic figures were trapped in cell-like boxes, thus recalling textile designs more closely. Finally, we have seen how the Incas were keen on covering their walls with sheets of gold and silver. Even so, Garcilaso tells us how at Coricancha a beautiful rainbow was painted on the part of the temple devoted to the worship of this spectacular natural phenomenon “due to the beauty of its colours and because they understood that it came from the sun. And the Inca kings put it on their weapons and currency” (Garcilaso, [1609], 1991, 122–123).
Tradition and innovation were, therefore, two qualities inherent in the art of Ancient Peru, whose specialists enjoyed a privileged social status that was perpetuated up until the time of the Incas, during which even a law existed that “ordered that each of the masters and artisans who worked in the service of the Inca or of his chiefs should be supplied with everything they required to practice their trades and arts. That is to say, that the silversmith be given gold or silver or copper to work with. And the weaver, wool or cotton. And the painter, colours. And all other things as required by each trade, so that the master should have to contribute no more than his labour and the time he was obliged to work” (Garcilaso [1609], 1991, 285).
pre-hispanic pottery:
form, function and meaning Emma Sánchez Montañés
From a Western point of view, pottery has always been considered a handicraft, a “minor art”, based on the idea that other more important Arts, with a capital “A”, exist that we refer to as being major. We seldom stop to consider that this evaluation originates in a classification of the arts that began with the Renaissance during the 18th Century, and that this was based on economic and social factors, characteristics of our Western society. This classification is not universal and is quite useless when it comes to dealing with the art produced by cultures outside the European Continent.
In Ancient America, art and culture followed a different course of development compared to the West, and pottery constituted one of the most outstanding manifestations of many of its peoples. Some people produced and decorated their pottery
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