Fish-Shaped Applique (1400–1532): Art, History and Details

Fish-Shaped Applique (1400–1532) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This fish-shaped textile was originally stitched with others like it to a mantle, a shawl-like garment that was a staple of Andean clothing. Its partial “X-ray view,” which emphasizes the bony spine, is unique to the style of the Ychsma (yeach-mah), who lived on Peru’s central coast. In addition to referencing sources of food, marine subjects may also carry religious associations, as some coastal peoples of the period regarded the sea as a deity.

Object facts

• Title: Fish-Shaped Applique
• Date: 1400–1532
• Culture: Central Andes, Central Coast, Ychsma (Pachacamac) people
• Type: Textile
• Technique: cotton and camelid fiber, tapestry weave with areas of eccentric weft floats
• Dimensions: Overall: 26 x 56.5 cm (10 1/4 x 22 1/4 in.); Mounted: 32.4 x 62.9 cm (12 3/4 x 24 3/4 in.)
• Collection: T - Pre-Columbian
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1933.392

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Wadsworth Atheneum, Adelyn Dohme Breeskin, and Charles Crehore Cunningham. 2000 Years of Tapestry Weaving: A Loan Exhibition : Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Dec. 7, 1951 to Jan. 27, 1952 ; the Baltimore Museum of Art, Feb. 27, 1952 to Mar. 25, 1952. Hartford, Conn: Wardsworth Atheneum], 1951.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.