  About the Artwork
  
  
  Elaborate costumes woven in an intricate slit tapestry technique were the formal dress of the nobility of the ancient Huari empire, worn at court and placed on the body for burial. The complex patterns on this tunic may look totally abstract, but they are based on stylized eyes and mouths full of fangs symbolizing powerful feline deities.
  
  
  Title
  Tunic
  
  
  Artwork Date
  between 800 and 1000
  
  Artist
  ----------
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  ----------
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Precolumbian
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
  Huari
  
  
  Medium
  Cotton and wool
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 83 × 39 inches (210.8 × 99.1 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Costumes
  
  
  Department
  Indigenous Americas
  
  
  Credit
  Founders Society Purchase with funds from Lee and Tina Hills
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  1986.25
  
  
  Copyright
  Copyright Not Evaluated
