Fragment Displaying Stepped-Fret Motif (About 200-500): Artwork and History

Fragment Displaying Stepped-Fret Motif (About 200-500) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Nasca South coast, Peru.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

This fragment, constructed with single interlocking warps and wefts, is composed of a pattern of over 20 step-frets rendered in 14 different colors. Nazca weavers are known for the wide range of colors employed in the production of their textiles. They achieved the various colors through dyeing and naturally colored yarns and by plying two different yarns together in order to produce additional colors. The irregularity of the pattern of the step frets displayed on this fragment may not reflect the original configuration of the design, as it may have been altered at a later date.

Object facts

• Title: Fragment Displaying Stepped-Fret Motif
• Date: About 200-500
• Artist attribution: Nasca South coast, Peru
• Place of origin: Peru
• Medium: Wool (camelid) and cotton, plain weave of discontinuous single interlocking warps and wefts
• Dimensions: 51.8 × 32.7 cm (20 3/8 × 12 7/8 in.)
• Type: Textile
• Department: Textiles
• Reference number: 1956.76

Collection credit

Purchased with funds provided by Mrs. Edwin A. Seipp

View the original

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.