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Source Description

Although dating to the colonial period, likely the seventeenth century, this lliclla, or woman’s mantle shows the continuity of textile traditions in the Andes. Women’s dress in the Andes remained consistent for centuries, if not millennia, and included a wrapped dress, held in place with silver pins, a mantle similar to this worn over it and closed at the breast with another pin. Such mantles had ritualized formulas for the disposition of different textile bands across them, each with their own name and meaning. In the Inca and early colonial period, these bands were fairly wide and included the stylized patterns known as tocapu, which showed the ethnic identity of the wearer. Although by the seventeenth century, the stripes were narrower, patterns only legible to the wearer and those who interacted closely with her, they retain stylized patterns derived from the tocapu. Innovation and the embrace of European materials in the colonial period is shown in the mantle through the inclusion of metallic threads in the mantle. Although these silver threads are interspersed with larger fields of plain weave, such elaborate patterning shows that this mantle was likely the property of a noblewoman, called ñusta in the Quechua language of the Incas.

Scholar Source Context

Document identity
localId
85461
label
""Lliclla"" (Woman's Wrap)
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
2
Source metadata
id
85461
contentType
object
stage
normalized
title
""Lliclla"" (Woman's Wrap)
description
Although dating to the colonial period, likely the seventeenth century, this lliclla, or woman’s mantle shows the continuity of textile traditions in the Andes. Women’s dress in the Andes remained consistent for centuries, if not millennia, and included a wrapped dress, held in place with silver pins, a mantle similar to this worn over it and closed at the breast with another pin. Such mantles had ritualized formulas for the disposition of different textile bands across them, each with their own name and meaning. In the Inca and early colonial period, these bands were fairly wide and included the stylized patterns known as tocapu, which showed the ethnic identity of the wearer. Although by the seventeenth century, the stripes were narrower, patterns only legible to the wearer and those who interacted closely with her, they retain stylized patterns derived from the tocapu. Innovation and the embrace of European materials in the colonial period is shown in the mantle through the inclusion of metallic threads in the mantle. Although these silver threads are interspersed with larger fields of plain weave, such elaborate patterning shows that this mantle was likely the property of a noblewoman, called ñusta in the Quechua language of the Incas.
provenance
Purchased by Georgia de Havenon, New York; given to Walters Art Museum, 2016.
date
18th century
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
textiles
mantles
imageCount
2
pageCount
2
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
50.8
height
76.2
dimensionsRaw
H: 20 x L: 30 in. (50.8 x 76.2 cm)
Source extras
med
camelid fibers
creator_ids
33118
collection_ids
AME
exhibition_ids
none
Page inventory
seq
1
type
photo
mediaId
0e19a02a2b07e42f
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
2
type
photo
mediaId
a52c455dee9ce986
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no