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Source Description
Finely woven interlocked tapestry garments were a privilege of the nobility within the Inca Empire. Such garments were made throughout the vast Inca territory by women of noble families, by professional weavers, and by the Aclla (Chosen Women). These specialists lived in cloistered communities and served the state by brewing beer and weaving fine cloth. The products of their labor were redistributed by the Inca state as prized gifts to loyal vassals and allies. The standardized decorative scheme of this tunic, known as the Inca Key, is one of the most common Inca tunic patterns.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
134604
label
Tunic
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
134604
contentType
object
title
Tunic
description
Finely woven interlocked tapestry garments were a privilege of the nobility within the Inca Empire. Such garments were made throughout the vast Inca territory by women of noble families, by professional weavers, and by the Aclla (Chosen Women). These specialists lived in cloistered communities and served the state by brewing beer and weaving fine cloth. The products of their labor were redistributed by the Inca state as prized gifts to loyal vassals and allies. The standardized decorative scheme of this tunic, known as the Inca Key, is one of the most common Inca tunic patterns.
date
c. 1400–1540
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q80027099
genreSpecific
Textile
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Average: 85.1 x 76.2 cm (33 1/2 x 30 in.)
cul
Peru, Inca, 15th-16th century
accession
1957.136
Source extras
tec
tapestry; cotton and camelid fiber
tombstone
Tunic, c. 1400–1540. Peru, Inca, 15th-16th century. Tapestry; cotton and camelid fiber; average: 85.1 x 76.2 cm (33 1/2 x 30 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of William R. Carlisle, 1957.136
collection
T - Pre-Columbian
formerAccessionNumbers
1766.1946
citations
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 299
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 299
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 403
citation
Pillsbury, Joanne. “Inka Unku: Strategy and Design in Colonial Peru.” <em>Cleveland Studies in the History of Art</em> 7 (2002): 68–103.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 68-69, fig. 1
citation
Schreffler, Michael J.<em> Cuzco: Incas, Spaniards, and the Making of a Colonial City</em>. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2020.
page_number
Reproduced: P. 29, fig. 1.6
citation
Dean, Carolyn. <em>Inside Abstraction: Interpreting Inka Visual Culture.</em> Austin: University of Texas Press, 2025.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 124; Reproduced: pl. 33
creditline
Gift of William R. Carlisle
updatedAt
2026-05-29 06:52:43.401000
sourceId
134604
dept
Textiles
coll
T - Pre-Columbian
med
tapestry; cotton and camelid fiber
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
0bedeb489c3fba52