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Four-cornered hat with birds

Dateca. 500 - 800
Label TextFor Peruvians, textiles made in the Andes were considered more valuable than gold. This unique style hat displays birds in profile, their plumage enhanced by the fluffy surface created using a knotted technique. Birds were precious economic trade resources and their luxurious feathers adorned clothing, but they also appear in mythology and ritual performances.
Remarkably well preserved, this four-cornered hat would have been worn high on the head of an official of the Wari Empire, which occupied the southern highlands of present-day Peru. The four corner peaks on the hat may have originally represented animal ears. This would have made a human-animal composite of the wearer, a common characteristic in Andean symbolic thought. Birds in profile and dynamic geometric patterns are depicted in alternating squares on the hat, which would have been part of an elaborate ensemble that included colorful face painting-one half a different pattern from the other-and a large, intricately patterned tunic. The wearer was virtually obscured and became a walking design.
Object number76.51
ProvenanceJack Lenor Larsen, New York, New York; Gifted to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, December 6, 1976
Photo CreditPhoto: Paul Macapia
The person who wore this hat would have also painted their face… [they would] almost not look like a person anymore, but a walking design.
Rebecca Stone, interview, 2006
Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Indigo, May 9, 2003 - Oct. 19, 2003. Chicago, Illinois, Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Americas: Art From Sacred Landscapes, Oct. 10, 1992 - Jan. 3, 1993 (Boston, Massachusetts, Museum of Fine Arts, Feb. 14 - Apr. 18, 1993; Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, June 6 - Aug. 15, 1993). Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Peru: Kingdoms of the Sun and the Moon, Oct. 17, 2013 - Jan. 5, 2014 (Montreal, Canada, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Feb. 2 - June 16, 2013).* Text by Victor Pimentel. Cat. no. 34, p. 347, not reproduced. [*Exhibition organized by Seattle Art Museum and circulated to Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; however, Four-cornered hat only shown in Seattle.]Published ReferencesMiller, Mary. "Art of Oceania, Mesoamerica, and the Andes." In Selected Works, pp. 59-64. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1991; p. 64, reproduced (as Tasseled Cap). Seattle Art Museum: Bridging Cultures, London: Scala Publishers Ltd. for the Seattle Art Museum, 2007, p. 34
Credit LineGift of Jack Lenor Larsen
Dimensions4 1/2 in. (11.43 cm) L.: 5 in.
MediumCamelid fiber, cotton
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