Textile Fragment (c. 50–650 CE): Art, History and Details

Textile Fragment (c. 50–650 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This fragment, one of several in the collection, is a rare survivor of catastrophic rains that destroyed much of the Moche textile legacy and may have helped to bring about the decline of Moche culture. It depicts a serpent and a snail beneath a hovering raptorial bird—perhaps a snail kite, a type of hawk named after its favored food. The size of the motifs implies that the original textile was large; a mantle (a shawl-like garment) or a hanging are among the possibilities.

Object facts

• Title: Textile Fragment
• Date: c. 50–650 CE
• Culture: Peru, Moche, north coast
• Type: Textile
• Technique: cotton and camelid fiber
• Dimensions: Overall: 43.2 x 27.6 cm (17 x 10 7/8 in.)
• Collection: T - Pre-Columbian
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 2007.2.5

A detail from the museum

This fragment is a rare survivor of floods that destroyed much of the Moche textile record.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

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.