{"id":330,"date":"2017-02-19T21:36:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-19T21:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/19\/textile-treasures-of-ancient-peru-the-amano-museum\/"},"modified":"2017-02-19T21:36:00","modified_gmt":"2017-02-19T21:36:00","slug":"textile-treasures-of-ancient-peru-the-amano-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/textile-treasures-of-ancient-peru-the-amano-museum.html","title":{"rendered":"Textile Treasures of Ancient Peru – The Amano Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nThe Amano Museum of Pre-Columbian Textiles<\/div>\n
\n        Calle Retiro 160<\/div>\n
\n         Miraflores, Lima, Peru<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAs you may have gathered from reading my blogs on textile
\nhistory, I have not restricted my studies to any particular area , but have
\nresearched textiles from prehistoric to contemporary.  The information on recent textiles is easy to obtain and
\nplentiful.  Not so with ancient
\ntextiles.  It is not unusual for
\nancient, extant, examples to be few and difficult to study.  Of course, the reason is that there are far,
\nfar, fewer of these textiles.  Many
\nmuseums have some ( more likely a few) that would fall into this category but
\ntheir condition varies to amazingly well preserved to dismally displayed, often
\nwith out-of-date information as to their provenience , fiber content or method
\nof construction.  It has only been in
\nrelatively recent times that skilled professionals with the newest
\ntechnological tools have been examining these remains and much still needs to
\nbe accomplished to begin to fill in the gaps of textile history.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIt was during discussions with several colleagues at the TSA
\n(Textile Society of America) Biennial meeting last October that I heard of a
\nsmall, but outstanding museum, in Peru with an amazing collection of
\nPre-Columbian  textiles. (I had
\nmentioned an upcoming trip to Peru in January).  Since I would be in Lima and, coincidentally the suburb of
\nMiraflores where collection resides, this was added to my must-see list.  Little did I realize that it would become a
\nquest.  Firstly, being a small, private
\ninstitution it was not widely known to the locals.  Our taxi driver had no knowledge of it , and although I had the
\naddress, it was a bit of exploration to find the small suburban street set with
\nhousing.  When we arrived, the driver
\npointed to a moderately sized building and we paid our fare and set off.  My husband, daughter and I entered but
\ndiscovered that it was not a museum, but a church.  Further, as it was Sunday the people we encountered naturally
\nassumed we were there for services and directed us in Spanish to various rooms,
\nwhich I could only assume were study groups that met before the actual
\nservice.  It was probable that many a
\ntextile visitor had made the same mistake and we were finally directed across
\nthe street to a modest, concrete grey, building surrounded with chain-link
\nfencing.  But we were not deterred, we
\nhad finally found this treasure and what a treasure it is!.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nFor over 60 years, Yoshitaro Amano had collected ancient Peruvian artifacts, left behind by grave robbers and archeologists, alike.  In
\n1964 he opened a museum of these objects, especially a large collection of
\ntextiles.  This museum was renovated
\nafter 50 years and contains a collection of more than 600 textiles on display
\nin chronological  sequence.  The exhibition is in 4 major rooms with the
\nmost up to date museum lighting and didactics in Spanish and English.  There are also video programs and a large
\narea of flat cases of textiles for study by appointment.  One thinks of the Incan civilization as
\nancient, but after all it is  only the
\npost-Spanish conquest of the Incans with which we are familiar.  These Pre-Columbian textiles were thousands
\nof years old.  Their condition was
\nremarkable, considering their age, colors still vibrant and fibers, for the
\nmost part still intact so that it was possible to understand their
\nconstruction.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n                                                                   Yoshitaro Amano<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n                                                                One of the exhibition rooms<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n                                                              Moi in the exhibition space<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Net darning<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Feathered cloak<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n Only 3 of the examples of the textiles on display                                                  <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIf you are not fortunate to be able to travel to Lima,
\nplease take some time to view information of the museum and the collection on
\nthe internet.  There is also many
\nvisuals of pre-Columbian, Peruvian textiles on various websites.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Amano Museum of Pre-Columbian Textiles         Calle Retiro 160          Miraflores, Lima, Peru As you may have gathered from reading my blogs on textile history, I have not restricted my studies to any particular area , but have researched textiles from prehistoric to contemporary.  The information on recent…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}