Unku with Heraldry, back view

1600-1700

Name(s) currently unknown

Private collection, USA

Made in the Andean highlands of either Bolivia or Peru, this tunic measures 29.75 x 70 inches (ca. 75.5 x 178 cm), and, would have been worn by a high-status indigenous man. The colors here combine harmonizing hues with those that are complementary: red set against purple, and blue upon red. The tocapu squares include multiple blue shades as well as pink, yellow and black.

The cut and basic design of the unku derives from pre-Hispanic traditions, as does the inclusion of tocapu squares. This design of double-headed and crowned eagles comes from Spanish heraldry and evokes royalty in this context. Recent scholarship suggests the purple background of the unku may be inspired by Spanish textiles—perhaps silks imported into the Andes.

This tunic would probably have been used as display regalia by a high-status indigenous man. Luxurious Inka-style clothing, like this, was sometimes buried with individuals or worn in ritual processions.

This tunic is one of several red-purple tunics with heraldic emblems at the neck and bands of tocapu at the waist known in modern collections. Scholars now believe these garments were probably colonial inventions that drew extensively, yet subtly from both European and indigenous, pre-Hispanic traditions, yet replicated neither exactly. The excellent state of preservation of these garments, including this one, suggests they were highly valued both at the time of their making and across the colonial period.

Private Collection

Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy.
Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820. http://www.fordham.edu/vistas, 2015.

Cummins, Thomas B. F., 2011. "Tocapu: What Is It, What Does It Do, and Why Is It Not a Knot?" In Their Way of Writing: Scripts, Signs and Pictographs in Pre-Columbian America, ed. Elizabeth H. Boone and G. Urton. Washington, D.C. Dumbarton Oaks, 277-317.

Phipps, Elena, Johanna Hecht, and Cristina Esteras Martín, eds. 2004. The Colonial Andes: Tapestries and Silverwork, 1530-1830. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Townsend, Richard, ed. 1992. The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago.