The people of ancient Peru produced textiles four thousand years before the Spanish Conquest in 1532 A.D.. They used almost every known technique and created some of the world's most outstanding handwoven textiles. One of the most visually exciting groups are the finely woven interlocking tapestry tunics that served as the official garments of the Wari (Huari) culture (c.700-1000 A.D.). The Wari maintained a highly organized social and economic state and its rigidity is manifested in the formal iconography and artistic conventions of their textiles. With sophisticated design principles and the masterful use of colour, however, the Wari counteracted the problems of monotony and repetition inherent in the strictly prescribed design of the garments. Few of the existing Wari tunics have accompanying scientific provenience or grave associations and therefore little is known of their cultural role. An art historical approach, however, utilizing stylistic analysis breaks the barrier created by the sparse scientific documentation and facilitates the deciphering of design conventions. Very little has been written specifically on Wari textiles. To date, the most important work is a brief article by Alan Sawyer. (Sawyer, 1963:27-38) In it he examines some of the complex design conventions and suggests a methodology for establishing a relative chronology. His methodology will be used in this study. This thesis begins with an examination of the Wari culture based on well documented ceramic evidence and continues with a discussion of provenience (when known), distribution, technology and iconography of the textiles. The focus of this study is the use of design conventions. Examination of three major design conventions - lateral distortion, symmetry and colour usage - is followed by a comparative analysis and a discussion of relevant ceramic evidence. Sawyer has divided Wari official garments into the following three types: 1. Type 1 - Paired elements 2. Type 2 - Composite motifs 3. Type 3 - Staff bearing anthropomorphic figures. This thesis is primarily concerned with the first type. The sample for this study consists of 47 representative examples ranging from fragments to complete tunics of Type 1. Through the examination of lateral distortion and the comparative analysis of relevant ceramic evidence and known textile provenience, a relative chronology can be proposed. It will be shown that it is possible to evaluate the design conventions of symmetry and colour usage to determine the rules governing their application. This in turn permits the identification of regional and temporal traits. / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate

Pre-Hispanic geometric art forms In Peru and the Andean Area are taken to be an outgrowth of textile techniques. Textiles and fibre arts predate ceramics by several millennia In the Central Andean Area. The artist who created these textiles developed an art style which was to go largely unaltered until the arrival of the Spaniards. The foundations of the Andean art form date to the Pre-ceramic. The restrictive, rather Inflexible nature of the warp and the weft of the cloth (the geometric grid) was to influence the methods of represention that were to follow. Geometric designs were well suited to fit Into the rigid framework. A series of conventions were developed for the representation of symbols. With the development of ceramics, there was leeway for a new style to come Into being. However, this was not to be the case. The potter borrowed extensively from the weaving tradition and Its associated styles (only in Moche times did the potter make a break the highly geometric style developed centuries before, and even then this break with tradition was a short lived one). The pre-Columbian artist often portrayed birds, cats, fish and reptiles. Many of these designs were used frequently and repeatedly throughout the centuries, but none, I would maintain. was represented as frequently as the double-headed serpent, and with so few variants. Andean art Is a truly distinctive art form; very different from European art, and through Its geometricity It conveyed and still conveys a totally different approach to nature and the world surrounding Andean man.

by Deborah L. Christiansen / Typescript / Ph. D. Florida State University 1999 / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-113)