Andean Art

Introduction

Table Summary

Dominant Cultures

Andean history can be divided into five phases (see History of Pre-colonial Meso/South America), each of which features one or two "dominant cultures". A dominant culture is the strongest and most influential culture of its age.

Main Article

Chavin Art

The Chavin culture is the "mother culture" of Andean civilization. In other words, the culture of the Chavin people served as the foundation upon which subsequent Andean cultures developed. Though little survives of Chavin architecture, enough visual art has been recovered to show that the essential style and motifs of Andean art were established by the Chavin.

The main forms of extant Chavin art are stone sculpture (relief and in-the-round), goldwork, and pottery (painted and/or sculpted). These art forms continued to flourish under subsequent Andean cultures. A distinctive feature of Andean pottery is the stirrup spout, illustrated in several of the images below.

Striking similarities may be observed between Andean and Mesoamerican art and architecture, suggesting that cultural influence flowed between these regions (and across the Americas in general) from early times.

Moche and Nazca Art

Andean pottery culminated with the splendid vessels of the Moche and Nazca peoples. While Moche pottery is typically realistically modelled and painted with a single colour, the Nazca preferred stylized modelling decorated in multiple colours (see Realism vs. Stylization).13

Along with pottery, the foremost artworks of this period are the Nazca Lines, produced by the Nazca culture. These enormous line drawings, comprised of grooves in the Nazca Desert (southwest Peru), number in the hundreds. Subjects include geometric forms, plants, birds, and animals.G391,H573

Tiwanaku-Wari Art

The Tiwanaku and Wari were two distinct cultures, each of which ruled a large empire. Yet in terms of overall Andean history, these two peoples were culturally very similar, far more so than (for instance) the Moche and Nazca. One may therefore reasonably group them under the single term Tiwanaku-Wari culture.

The foremost collection of Tiwanaku-Wari art is the ruined city of Tiwanaku, capital of the Tiwanaku Empire, in present-day northern Bolivia. The largest works of art among these ruins are a great stone gateway and numerous pillar statues. (A "pillar statue" has a roughly cylindrical shape, such that it resembles a pillar.)

Chimu Art

The foremost artistic legacy of the Chimu culture is its ruined capital, the city of Chan Chan. The clay brick walls of the city are coated in a variety of relief patterns.13

Inca Art

The most famous architectural work of Andean civilization is Machu Picchu, the best-preserved settlement of the Inca culture. The buildings and retaining walls of Machu Picchu blend seamlessly with its natural environment. Though relatively small, Machu Picchu may have served as a royal complex, given the exceptional quality of its stonework and its unusually high altitude.H576,K212-13

The Inca also showed remarkable talent in the field of goldsmithing. While fine goldwork was produced by Andean cultures in general (as well as Mesoamerican cultures in general), the Inca are likely the most renowned goldsmiths of the pre-colonial Americas.

Andean Weaving

The art of weaving flourished among all Andean cultures; indeed, Andean textiles are matched in fame only by those of Sub-Saharan Africa and the Islamic world. Vibrantly-coloured geometric patterns are the norm; figures, if present, are rendered in a geometrically stylized fashion.