The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 26, 2024

Mantle or Hanging

Mantle or Hanging

1480–1635 (radiocarbon date, 95.4% probability)
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The Chimú forged an empire that thrived until the 1460s, when the Inka incorporated it into their own imperial domain.

Description

This garment embodies an important principle of the Chimú textile aesthetic: a love of combining different textures, some dense and sculptural and others so open and airy they are nearly invisible. (The hand-spun yarns are only .1 to .2 millimeters in diameter.) It also elegantly articulates the simplified, spare visual vocabulary that the Chimú favored, here geometric motifs.
  • Radiocarbon dating of textile
    As part of a project to identify and date textiles from the Chimú culture—a peoples located on the north coast of present day Peru between 1200 and 1460—several Chimú textiles in Cleveland’s collection were radiocarbon dated. Also known as carbon 14 or 14C dating, radiocarbon dating is a method of determining a date range for the creation of organic materials such as this cotton textile. That is why on the collections online record for this object, the date field indicates that this object has been radiocarbon dated. We also include the degree of probability for the date range listed. With radiocarbon dating, what is being measured is how much less 14C is in a particular sample than would be found in a similar modern material. The radiocarbon dating method is based on the fact that plant and animal tissue levels of 14C remain relatively constant during life, but taper off at a predictable rate in surviving remains. Traces of radiocarbon typically can be detected in organic remains up to 50,000 years old. With currently available equipment, only a very small sample is needed for radiocarbon dating—between 20 and 50 mg.
  • Rowe, Ann Pollard, and John P. O'Neill. Costumes & featherwork of the Lords of Chimor: textiles from Peru's north coast. 1984.
  • Ancient Andean Textiles (Gallery 232 rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (December 9, 2022-December 3, 2023).
    Gallery 232- Andean Textile Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27, 2014-July 27, 2015).
    The Ancient Americas- Art From Sacred Landscapes, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, (October 10, 1992- January 3, 1993); The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, (February- April 18, 1993); The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, (June 6- August 15, 1993).
  • {{cite web|title=Mantle or Hanging|url=false|author=|year=1480–1635 (radiocarbon date, 95.4% probability)|access-date=26 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2005.5.1