Many examples survive of the renowned checkerboard tunic with a stepped yoke. The Spaniard Francisco de Xérez witnessed the arrival into Cajamarca of the retinue and army of the Emperor Atahualpa in 1534. He wrote that ‘first came a squadron of Indians dressed in livery of colors in the manner of chessboards; they came removing straws from the ground and sweeping the road’.¹ According to Rebecca Stone-Miller, the red yoke ‘could indicate higher status; perhaps such tunics were worn by military leaders or given as gifts by the ruler himself’.² They were definitely associated with the Sapa Inca, as they appear as one of the motifs on his imperial Inca tunic.³

The black and white alternating squares of the checkerboard stand for the dualism underlying the visual culture of ancient Peru. Contrasted with a brilliant red yoke, the garment’s design is both striking and memorable. Black and white could symbolise night and day, the underworld and the sky, while red stands for the human world, and for its element of blood. In metals, the equivalents are, respectively, silver, gold and copper.

Although most weavers were female, the male cumbicamayos (ones in charge of fine cloth) wove these tunics, another indication of their wearers’ high status. The tunics were made by the technique of interlocked tapestry, or cumbi, used for army uniforms and royal gifts. Gifts of such textiles and gold vessels to rulers vanquished by the Inca were used to reinforce the new regime. This ensured reciprocal duties to their overlords, although perhaps the sight of an army of 10,000 Incan soldiers would be even more convincing.⁴

Christine Dixon

1. Quoted in Rebecca Stone-Miller, To weave for the sun: Ancient Andean textiles in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston and London: Museum of Fine Arts and Thames
and Hudson 1994, p. 172.

2. Stone-Miller, p. 172.

3. Unku c. 1500 AD, held by the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington D.C.

4. See Tom Cummins, ‘Queros, aquillas, uncus, and chulpas: The composition of Inka artistic expression and power’, pp. 267–312 in Richard L. Burger et al. (eds), Variations in the expression of Inka power: A symposium at Dumbarton Oaks 18 and 19 October 1997, Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks 2007, pp. 278–79.

Many examples survive of the renowned checkerboard tunic with a stepped yoke. The Spaniard Francisco de Xérez witnessed the arrival into Cajamarca of the retinue and army of the Emperor Atahualpa in 1534. He wrote that ‘first came a squadron of Indians dressed in livery of colors in the manner of chessboards; they came removing straws from the ground and sweeping the road’.¹ According to Rebecca Stone-Miller, the red yoke ‘could indicate higher status; perhaps such tunics were worn by military leaders or given as gifts by the ruler himself’.² They were definitely associated with the Sapa Inca, as they appear as one of the motifs on his imperial Inca tunic.³

The black and white alternating squares of the checkerboard stand for the dualism underlying the visual culture of ancient Peru. Contrasted with a brilliant red yoke, the garment’s design is both striking and memorable. Black and white could symbolise night and day, the underworld and the sky, while red stands for the human world, and for its element of blood. In metals, the equivalents are, respectively, silver, gold and copper.

Although most weavers were female, the male cumbicamayos (ones in charge of fine cloth) wove these tunics, another indication of their wearers’ high status. The tunics were made by the technique of interlocked tapestry, or cumbi, used for army uniforms and royal gifts. Gifts of such textiles and gold vessels to rulers vanquished by the Inca were used to reinforce the new regime. This ensured reciprocal duties to their overlords, although perhaps the sight of an army of 10,000 Incan soldiers would be even more convincing.⁴

Christine Dixon

1. Quoted in Rebecca Stone-Miller, To weave for the sun: Ancient Andean textiles in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston and London: Museum of Fine Arts and Thames
and Hudson 1994, p. 172.

2. Stone-Miller, p. 172.

3. Unku c. 1500 AD, held by the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington D.C.

4. See Tom Cummins, ‘Queros, aquillas, uncus, and chulpas: The composition of Inka artistic expression and power’, pp. 267–312 in Richard L. Burger et al. (eds), Variations in the expression of Inka power: A symposium at Dumbarton Oaks 18 and 19 October 1997, Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks 2007, pp. 278–79.