Tapestry Medallion

Nasca · 650 CE-700 CE

Medium

Oil on canvas

Original size

14 × 12.7 cm (5 1/2 × 5 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Medieval

Tapestry Medallion is a radiant example of the visual sophistication achieved by Nasca weavers at the height of their craft, its circular form pulsing with geometric precision and ceremonial intensity. The Nasca people of southern coastal Peru were among the most technically accomplished textile artists of the ancient world. Working without a written language, they encoded cosmological meaning into woven cloth — using color, symmetry, and symbolic imagery to communicate ideas about the supernatural, fertility, and identity. This medallion, dated to 650–700 CE, reflects the late Nasca tradition of bold, interlocking motifs rendered in colors that have remained vivid for over thirteen centuries. Nasca weavers worked with wool from camelids and cotton native to the Andean region, and scholars have documented the use of more than 190 distinct hues in their textile traditions — a range rivaling many painting palettes. The Art Institute of Chicago holds this piece as part of its pre-Columbian collection, where it stands as testament to a culture that treated cloth as one of its most sacred and expressive mediums. This hand-painted oil reproduction translates the medallion's intricate geometry and warm chromatic depth onto canvas, honoring the original's striking presence while making its beauty accessible beyond the museum wall.