Urpu with geometric designs, Perú, Inca (Inka) culture, A.D. 1400–1530, ceramic and slip paints, Dallas Museum of Art, the Nora and John Wise Collection, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jake L. Hamon, the Eugene McDermott Family, Mr. and Mrs. Algur H. Meadows and the Meadows Foundation, Incorporated, and Mr. and Mrs. John D. Murchison, 1989.W.234
Tunic with black-and-white checkerboard and stepped yoke, Perú, Inca (Inka) culture, A.D. 1400–1540, camelid fiber, Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc. in honor of Carol Robbins, 1995.32.McD
Dallas Museum presents ‘Inca: Conquests of the Andes’ Dallas Museum of Art presents ‘Inca: Conquests of the Andes/Los Incas y las Conquistas de los Andes’, an exhibition of over 120 objects that explores the dynamic nature of state expansion and imperial conquest through Andean visual arts. May 15 – November 15, 2015.]]>
Source: Dallas Museum of Art
Inca: Conquests of the Andes conveys the richness of over 1,000 years of Andean cultural history in thematic sections, and includes these highlighted works of art:
The Inca Conquest opens the exhibition with the DMA’s Inca key checkerboard tunic, arguably the finest example of this standardized Inca tunic type outside of Peru. Beginning with this vibrant male garment, the exhibition features five of the Museum’s most impressive tunics in central locations within the successive gallery spaces, permitting visitors to walk around the finely woven garments as they would appear worn on high-ranking males of the respective societies. Focused on conquest, the gallery also engages Andean weaponry and military status through metal knives (or tumi), mace heads, and braided slings.
Forging Connections presents key aspects of Andean practice and Inca ritualism that served to connect the diverse and increasingly widespread imperial territories. The gallery highlights the DMA’s rich assortment of decorated Andean woven and net bags often used for carrying coca leaves, as well as small intricate objects associated with coca and ritual practices. The role of miniatures in Andean practice is exemplified through the display of precious Inca miniature silver and gold figurines that reflect the ideal male and female Inca elites.
Foundations explores the pre-Inca polities, such as the Huari and Tiahuanaco, which provided substantial practical and ideological bases for later Inca imperial expansions. The room revolves around the impressive Huari male tunic from the DMA’s collection, while it explores the vibrant range of other Huari and Tiahuanaco provincial styles and objects, many on exhibition for the first time, including mantles and fine tapestry bags with ornate imagery. The gallery theme is enriched substantively by a generous loan from the Kimbell Art Museum of a precious Huari standing figurine.
Hybrid Arts presents the complex dynamism of coastal and highland cultural interactions from the perspective of north coast Sicán and Chimú visual arts. The gallery highlights not only the DMA’s Sican gold beakers but also an assortment of silver cups and intricate silver ornaments, which are laden with coastal motifs. The Inca-style urpu, a storage vessel for Andean maize beer, serves to address Inca influence among the coastal provinces.
Andean Textile Arts provides a diverse array of pre-Hispanic Andean textiles, including both standardized designs and hybrid productions of male and female garment types. Tunics from the Andean central coast convey the vibrant patterns of fine tapestries while examples from the north coast present the dramatic simplicity of painted fabrics. The gallery includes examples of ornamented pre-Hispanic Andean weaving implements and loom parts.
The Spanish Conquest opens with a generous loan from the Mel Fisher Museum in Key West of an intricately decorated silver bowl recovered from the famous Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha, which sank in 1622 off the coast of modern Florida. Juxtaposed with its Spanish form, the bowl addresses Inca social practice with paired feasting cups and Andean traditional weaving. These themes are richly explored through the display of the DMA’s impressive Spanish colonial poncho, as well as the representative collection of wooden goblets (or quero) carved, painted, and modeled with vibrant images of Andean conception.
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A Voyage to South America: Andean Art in the Spanish Empire – Art Institute, Chicago (exhibition, 2015)
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