Shamans, Supernaturals & Animal Spirits: Mythic Figures From the Ancient Andes

Veering away from the figurative style that is a hallmark of
the Chimú aesthetic, this enigmatic composition displays
an atypical sense of abstraction, spatial perspective and symbolic
compression.
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Fragment from a Shirt?
Hovering Birds?
Chimú culture
AD 1000-1476
Camelid wool; interlocking tapestry weave
7" x 12"
Literature
Reid 1985, color plate 4.
The angular crescent form is usually reserved for headdress
motifs. But in this case, the wearer’s head has shrunk in
proportion to the crown. This unnatural shift of scale—as
well as the configuration of the three repeat shapes, which are
centered upon a small hexagonal element—invites alternative
readings of the design.
Firstly, in a subtle manipulation of negative space, the designerweaver
has conjured the illusion of a schematic face within
the flecked background. The eyes of this ghostly creature are
supplied by the two opposed heads, while the hexagon yields
an open or rounded mouth.
However, when the crescent motifs are foregrounded, the
image suggests a scene viewed from above with its characters
visually foreshortened. The triangular elements evoke
three hunched, caped personages with outspread arms or,
alternatively, swooping birds with open wings. The implications
are mysterious. Are the figures encircling a nest? Gyrating
around a ritual altar or artifact?
The design appears to be a more stylized adaptation of an
image recorded in another Chimú tapestry, which explicitly
represents the same character as an anthropomorphic bird
hovering over a raft or boat. 1
1 See José Antonio de Lavalle, ed., Culturas Precolombinas: Chimú (1988): 211.
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