Coca Bag (Ch’uspa) Fragment with Birds, Animals, and Floral and Geometric Patterns (Fragmento de bolsa de coca (ch’uspa) con motivos animales, florales y geométricos)

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Coca Bag (Ch’uspa) Fragment with Birds, Animals, and Floral and Geometric Patterns (Fragmento de bolsa de coca (ch’uspa) con motivos animales, florales y geométricos)

Peru, late 16th-early 17th century
Costumes
Cotton and camelid-fiber tapestry weave
35 1/8 × 14 3/8 in. (89.2 × 36.5 cm)
Los Angeles County Fund (70.3.2)
Costume and Textiles
Not currently on public view

Provenance

Private collection, Huancavelica, Peru, 1969; Arts of the Four Quarters Ltd., New York, 1970; LACMA, 1970.

Label

This high-style colonial bag would have been folded in the center and sewn on the sides.

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This high-style colonial bag would have been folded in the center and sewn on the sides. Such bags were used to hold coca leaves, which were consumed to relieve symptoms caused by the high altitude of the Andes and offered in ceremonial contexts. Bags were also a frequent accessory of Inca coyas (queens). The exuberant design of this example—with tocapu (geometric motifs associated with the elite), animals, leaves, and feathers—suggests that it belonged to a noble Inca woman.


From exhibition Archive of the World, 2022 (for more information see the catalogue entry by Elena Phipps in the accompanying publication, cat. no. 31, pp. 167–69)
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Bibliography

  • Katzew, Ilona, ed. Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800: Highlights from LACMA’s Collection. Exh. Cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books/D.A.P., 2022.

Exhibition history

  • Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, November 6, 2011 - January 29, 2012
  • Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800 Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
  • Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, November 6, 2011 - January 29, 2012
  • Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800 Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
  • Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800 Nashville, TN, Frist Art Museum, October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
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