Fragment from a ceremonial panel, detail, from Peru, Huari style, AD 750-800.

Iconic Pre-Peruvian Tapestries At The Textile Museum

“Gods and Empire: Huari Ceremonial Textiles,” an exhibition featuring 12 tapestry-woven objects drawn from the museum’s collection of Huari textiles, is on view at The Textile Museum through January 15. The Huari Empire, which flourished during the Seventh and Eighth Centuries, was based near the modern city of Ayacucho, Peru. The powerful empire conquered a vast area that included most of the coast and highlands of what now constitutes Peru.

“Gods and Empire” explores what textiles and other evidence can tell about Huari religious practices. Textiles on display include garments such as a mantel, headband and several tunics, as well as two nongarment textiles featuring a colorful and distinctive ceremonial iconography. The exhibition is curated by Ann Pollard Rowe, the museum’s curator of western hemisphere collections. She has published articles on Huari-style textiles, including mantels and tunics depicting musicians, for The Textile Museum and for Dumbarton Oaks.

Tunic, Peru, Huari style, AD 750-800, acquired by George Hewitt Myers in 1952.

Archaeological evidence of the Huari Empire includesceramics, found primarily in tombs, with Huari secular designs orreligious iconography. Textile preservation is rare in thehighlands because of seasonal rainfall. Because the Huari Empireconquered such a vast area, however, fine tapestry-woven textileswith designs similar to those found on Huari ceramics have beenfound in the coastal desert. The museum possess an outstandingcollection of these Huari-style textiles.

“Gods and Empire” features a large textile measuring eight feet in length and two feet in height, with repeating sections depicting a rayed deity head, staff-bearing, winged figures and a scene of two men making fire with a fire drill. The fragmentary textile was given to the museum in 2002 and has been painstakingly reassembled by the museum’s conservation department. A full-scale reconstruction, depicting what the textile may have looked like when originally created, is exhibited alongside the conserved fragment. It is clear from its nongarment format and from the representation of the principal Huari deities that the textile must have had some ritual use, perhaps display or sacrifice or some combination of the two.

The museum is at 2320 S Street, NW. It is open Monday-Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm, and Sunday, 1 to 5 pm. Admission is free; suggested donation is $5.

For information, www.textilemuseum.org or 202-667-0441.