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Unknown Maker, Guatemalan

Su't

Maker

Unknown Maker, Guatemalan

Culture

Guatemalan, K'iche Maya

Title

Su't
Tsute

Year

before 1917

Medium

  • Backstrap-loom-woven cotton plain weave with cotton and silk supplementary weft patterning and cotton embroidery at seams

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Backstrap-loom-woven cotton plain weave with cotton and silk supplementary weft patterning and cotton embroidery at seams

Materials

cotton

Geography

Santo Tomás Chichicastenango, El Quiché, Guatemala

Dimensions

67.3 cm (26 1/2 inches) (length)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Mrs. Barbara Deering Danielson

Object Number

82.308.33E

Type

  • Textiles

Exhibition History

From the Loom of a Goddess
Reverberations of Guatemalan Mayan Weaving
Feb 23, 2018 – Aug 19, 2018

Label copy

Made in one of the best-known weaving villages in the Guatemalan highlands, Santo Tomás Chichicastenango, these huipiles (women’s blouses of pre-Hispanic origin) and su’t (multipurpose cloth) illustrate how community-specific styles defined Maya traje (traditional clothing) in the 1800s and 1900s. The double-headed eagle, or k’ot, seen here in varying degrees of abstraction, turns one head to the sky and the other towards the earth. The central huipil’s neckline is finished with rays suggesting that the Maya woman wearing it would be like the sun at its zenith.

Hecho en uno de los pueblos tejedores más conocidos de la sierra guatemalteca, Santo Tomás Chichicastenango, estos huipiles (blusas de mujer de origen prehispánico) y su't (tela multipropósito) ilustran cómo estilos específicos de la comunidad definían el “traje Maya” (vestimenta tradicional) en los años 1800 y 1900. El águila de dos cabezas, o k'ot, vista aquí en diversos grados de abstracción, apunta una cabeza hacia el cielo y la otra hacia la tierra. El escote del huipil central tiene un acabado con rayos que sugieren que la mujer maya que lo lleva sería como el sol en su cenit.

Image use

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Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Unknown Maker, Guatemalan
Su't; Tsute, before 1917
Backstrap-loom-woven cotton plain weave with cotton and silk supplementary weft patterning and cotton embroidery at seams
67.3 cm (26 1/2 inches) (length)
Gift of Mrs. Barbara Deering Danielson 82.308.33E

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