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Guatemalan K'iche Maya or Mam Maya, Santo Tomás Chichicastenango, Dept. of El Quiché, Guatemala

Huipil Panel, before 1917

Description

Maker

Culture

Guatemalan

Title

Huipil Panel

Year

before 1917

Medium

Treadle-loom-woven cotton plain weave with cotton and silk supplementary weft patterning

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • cotton

Dimensions

Length: 396.2 cm (156 inches)

Place

Santo Tomás Chichicastenango, Dept. of El Quiché, Guatemala

Type

  • Fashion,
  • Costume

Credit

Gift of Mrs. Barbara Deering Danielson

Object Number

82.308.24B

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

From the Loom of a Goddess

February 23 - August 19, 2018

The long textile with blue-and-red patterned bands shows how a huipil looks as it comes off the loom, before it is sewn. This example was woven on a foot-powered treadle loom, technology introduced by the Spanish and operated by men, though the design refers to patterns traditionally produced by women using drawlooms. Diamonds and zigzags symbolize the feathered serpent deity Q’uq’umatz, and long-tailed birds resemble the quetzal, a rare bird whose feathers were reserved exclusively for the headdresses of rulers. In the adjacent huipil, the blue-and-purple bands of chevrons may refer to the serpent, the mythological means by which the sun and stars move across the sky.

El largo tejido con bandas estampadas en azul y rojo muestra cómo se ve un huipil cuando sale del telar, antes de ser cosido. Esta muestra fue tejida en un telar de pedal, una tecnología introducida por los españoles y operada por hombres, aunque el diseño es alusivo a patrones tradicionalmente producidos por mujeres que usan telares de dibujo. Diamantes y zigzags simbolizan a la deidad serpiente emplumada Q'uq'umatz, y las aves de cola larga se parecen al quetzal, un ave rara cuyas plumas estaban reservadas exclusivamente para los tocados de los gobernantes. En el huipil adyacente, las bandas de cabríos azules y moradas aluden a la serpiente, el medio mitológico por el cual el sol y las estrellas se mueven a través del cielo.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Huipil Panel with the accession number of 82.308.24B. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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