Head Cloth
Unknown Artist
1000–1460s
Medium
Cotton
Dimensions
99.1 × 99.1 cm
Classification
Textile
Department
Textiles
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
Accession Number
2017.60
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This tie-dyed panel was probably worn as a head cloth, a common article of women’s wear among the Chancay people of Peru’s central coast. Its colors are reminiscent of a deep twilight, when the sky turns a luminous, dark blue and a shimmer of orange light appears on the horizon. It is not known whether the repeated squares have symbolic significance.