Wool Pile Cap Artist: Unknown

A.D. 700–900

Art of the Ancient Americas

Not on view

Close-fitting, four-cornered caps such as this one were worn by Huari and Tiahuanaco elite males in life and were interred with the dead. Upon a netted cotton base, the llama or alpaca wool pile in more than eight colors is woven into repeating designs of long-necked birds and geometric shapes.

Medium

Wool and cotton, square-knotted network with wool pile

Dimensions

3 1/4 × 20 1/16 in. (8.3 × 50.9 cm)
Bosses on 4 corners: 1 1/4 in. (3.2 cm)

Credit Line

Hobart and Edward Small Moore Memorial Collection, Gift of Mrs. William H. Moore

Accession Number

1937.4589

Geography

Central Andes, Peru

Culture

Central Andes, Wari

Period

Middle Horizon

Classification

Textiles

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Bought in Peru by Mrs. Moore, 1932.
Bibliography
  • Susan B. Matheson, Art for Yale: A History of the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2001), 165, fig. 162
  • Elizabeth Hill Boone, ed., Andean Art at Dumbarton Oaks, 2, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1996), 412, pl. 117
  • Handbook of the Collections, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 323, ill
  • Mary Frame, Andean Four-Cornered Hats: Ancient Volumes, exh. cat. (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1990),
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

caps (headgear), clothing, mythology

Subject

animals

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