Pre-Columbian, Central Coast Peru, Chancay, ca. 1000 to 1425 CE. An intriguing wooden mask carved and painted in a manner characteristic of the artisans of Chancay. The visage is painted with brilliant red cinnabar pigment as well as white and brown for the diamond-shaped eyes; the pupil of the right eye also shows remnants of textile. The mask is further adorned with a fringe of dark brown human hair (perhaps belonging to the deceased), two braided cords across the face (used to attach mask to mummy of the deceased), a drilled hole at the vecinity of the mouth, and a turbante comprised of textile created with an openwork gauze technique that ties on the back of the mask and flows down the back side. The transparency and open weave is strikingly complex. Size: 11" (27.9 cm) x 9 1/4" (23.5 cm).

Chancay textiles were oftentimes made for magical or religious purposes. Headdresses in particular were imbued with spiritual properties. According to scholarship, threads were spun in the form of an S-shape in anticlockwise direction. This thread according to cultural lore possessed a magical quality called lloque which was believed to provide protection in the afterlife.

Provenance: Ex-Minerva Gallery; Ex-Arte Primitivo; Ex-private Danish Collection, acquired early 1970s, collection #859.

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#102771

Intact and excellent.