Early Nasca Recursions: The Reiterations of the Brooklyn Museum “Paracas” Textile

Among the most extraordinary of all Paracas and Nasca fabrics, The Brooklyn Museum Textile (BMT, 38.121) was created 2,000 years old on Peru’s South Coast. Its two parts: the sheer “central cloth” and the heavy, three-dimensional “border,” diverge in technique, palette, style, and iconography. While the central cloth bears a design of 32 stylized faces in a Chavín-related style, the border presents a lively parade of 92+ tiny, costumed figures executed in the simplified naturalism of Nasca 2. The differences between “center” and “frame” led William Conklin to propose that the Nasca border was attached, in homage, to an already antique central cloth. Whatever its chronology, the border acts a commentary on the central cloth: one that highlights its material qualities, echoes its design symmetries, dictates its exhibition conditions, and manifests the intentions of its artists. For instance, in order to co-ordinate with the utter reversibility of the central cloth (whose warp-wrapped designs lie within its transparent, two-dimensional plane), the cross-looped border uses a triple-layer construction. The meticulous finish of both parts—like an expression repeated in two languages—emphasizes “perfect two-sidedness:” later a featured quality of the finest Inca cumbi cloth. Similarly, the quartered layout of both parts makes visible “four parts together,” a pan-Andean ordering scheme. Four single-file lines of border figures parading around the central cloth vividly recall Denise Arnold’s comparison of Andean performance spaces to weaving formats. Dual reiterations throughout the piece provide unique insights into the minds of the Brooklyn Museum Textile’s makers.