Wall Hanging or Table Cover with Double-Headed Eagle

Wall Hanging or Table Cover with Double-Headed Eagle

Mid-1700s
Artist
Unknown
Country
Peru
Object
cover, wall, cover, table
Medium
Woven wool and camelid fiber
Accession Number
1970.347
Credit Line
Neusteter Textile Collection: Neusteter Institute Fund
Wall Hanging or Table Cover with Double-Headed Eagle, Peru, mid 1700s. Woven wool and camelid fiber; 99 x 62.75 inches. Neusteter Textile Collection at the Denver Art Museum: Neusteter Institute Fund, 1970.347. Photography ©Denver Art Museum
Dimensions
length: 99 in, 251.4600 cm; width: 62.75 in, 159.3850 cm
Department
Avenir Institute of Textile Arts and Fashion
Collection
Textile Arts and Fashion-Ancient and Latin American Art

Once used as a wall hanging or table cover, this large, colorful tapestry from viceregal Peru demonstrates the convergence of Andean and European textile traditions, forms, and motifs during the colonial period. In the pre-Columbian Andes, woven textiles played significant roles in almost all aspects of Inca society and were used as precious gifts for the nobility and the gods. Although Andean textile traditions were dramatically transformed after the Spanish invasion in the sixteenth century, they did not disappear. Rather, indigenous techniques, materials, and designs continued to inform and inspire colonial weavers, who creatively combined native traditions with European forms and motifs to create unique aesthetic and symbolic expressions.

Primarily colored by reds, pinks, yellows, and blues, this tapestry is composed of several distinct fields and borders. Within the central, rectangular field are two small birds (perhaps doves) and a blue, double-headed crowned eagle, a European symbol of kingship and nobility. The surrounding field is filled with a lively variety of floral and faunal motifs, including parrots and native Andean rodents called viscachas, which are believed to have played a mythological role in the Andes as intermediaries between humans and the gods. At each corner are crowned lions with extended red tongues. They flank what appear to be stylized vases of flowers, an element likely adapted from Renaissance grotesque designs. Large felines were symbols of power and authority in both Europe and the Andes. In the colonial era, the Inca jaguar or puma was sometimes conflated with the Spanish heraldic lion, as may be the case here. The tapestry’s outer border is a woven depiction of lace, with each lappet filled with a floral motif. Lace was popular in viceregal Peru and its representation on the tapestry may reflect the broader understanding of it as a signifier of luxury, fashion, and high social standing. Although we have much to learn about this tapestry, the inclusion of numerous motifs associated with power and authority expressed through a combination of Andean and European visual languages, suggests that it was made for a Peruvian patron aligned with and conversant in both indigenous and Spanish elite culture.

--Sabena Kull, 2017-18 Mayer Fellow for Spanish Colonial Art

Known Provenance
Provenance research is on-going at the Denver Art Museum. Please e-mail provenance@denverartmuseum.org, if you have questions, or if you have additional information to share with us.
Exhibition History
  • Creative Crossroads 2015