Coca Bag

Inca · 1476-1532

Medium

Oil on canvas

Original size

48.3 × 17.2 cm (19 × 6 3/4 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Italian Renaissance

This intimate Inca coca bag, dating from the height of the Tawantinsuyu empire between 1476 and 1532, offers a rare window into the ceremonial life of one of the ancient world's most sophisticated civilisations. The Inca regarded textiles as among the most sacred of objects — more prized, in many contexts, than gold. Coca bags, known as ch'uspas, were woven for ritual use, holding the dried leaves that featured in offerings to Andean deities and in the ceremonies of the ruling elite. The bold geometric motifs characteristic of Inca weaving reflect a visual language dense with cosmological meaning, each pattern tied to specific social and religious hierarchies. Coca leaves held such profound significance in Inca society that their cultivation and distribution were controlled by the state, reserved largely for priests, nobles, and those making offerings to the gods. This hand-painted oil reproduction translates the rich geometry and warm earth tones of the original into the enduring medium of oil on canvas, preserving the visual energy of an object that once moved between worlds — the human and the divine — in the heart of the Andes.