Unidentified artist
Poncho with Musicians (Poncho con músicos)late 17th-early 18th century

Not on view

Woven carpet or rug, nearly square, with a deep wine-red field centering a large four-lobed medallion filled with scrolling vine and palmette motifs in orange, green, and blue, corner spandrels, tiny human figures, and a wide amber-brown vine-scroll border

Pile carpet fragment with deep crimson field, showing a corner section with multiple borders densely filled with scrolling arabesques, palmettes, and floral motifs in gold, teal, and ivory; an arched medallion medallion partially visible at lower right.

Textile fragment with deep red ground, featuring two horizontal bands of woven ornamental design. Upper band displays interlocking medallions enclosing floral and animal motifs in cream, blue, olive, and rose. Lower band shows smaller floral roundels with scrolling vine border. Fringe visible along top edge.

Woven textile fragment with deep crimson ground, depicting a standing figure in a wide-brimmed hat and embroidered coat raising a long instrument to their mouth, rendered in cream, gold, and teal; partial animal or bird motif visible at lower edge.

Artist or Maker: Unidentified artist
Title: Poncho with Musicians (Poncho con músicos)
Place Made: Peru, southern Andes
Date Made: late 17th-early 18th century
Medium: Cotton, camelid-fiber, and silk and metallic-thread tapestry weave
Dimensions: 69 1/2 × 66 in. (176.5 × 167.6 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Miss Bella Mabury
Accession Number: M.40.1.76
Classification: Costumes
Collecting Area: Costume and Textiles
Curatorial Notes: Public celebrations in Cuzco and Potosí, in present-day Peru and Bolivia, were known for their extravagance. This fine poncho would have been worn in procession by musicians, its silver threads glimmering in the sunlight. Employing traditional methods of the Inca master weavers (cumbicamayos), the poncho is filled with European-style imagery, such as cherubs, double-headed eagles, scrollwork, vines, and vases. Four musicians with trumpets—two on each side—wear fashionable Spanish dress. Tucked within these designs, birds, lions, monkeys, and other animals, including the Andean mountain viscacha (a rodent in the chinchilla family), provide ample evidence of Andean life.

From exhibition Archive of the World, 2022 (for more information see the catalogue entry by Elena Phipps in the accompanying publication, cat. no. 33, pp. 175–77)
Provenance: Bella Mabury, Los Angeles, before 1939; Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art (LACMA’s parent institution), 1940.
Selected 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.
Selected Exhibition History: Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World. November 6, 2011 - January 29, 2012
Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World. November 6, 2011 - January 29, 2012
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024

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