Arts and Crafts of Peru

The earliest Peruvian civilisation was that of Chavin. The jaguar, in highly stylised form, is found on their woven cloths and clay vessels

Typical of the Chavin style in pottery are vessels in heavy clay with a hooped handle serving also as a spout.

In the south, the chief centres of artistic development lay in the valleys of Nazca, Ica, and Pisco.

Almost all the ways of weaving used today were known in that now old. The materials used were cotton, alpaca, or vicufla wool.

With Nazca ceramics, the pottery painting falls into two main groups, one recognises motifs such as birds, fish, and plants, which serve as fertility symbols the second group consists of purely religious mythical subjects.

In the Moche tribes on the northern coast, men and everyday objects were portrayed in clay, but in the south almost nothing has been found except depictions of demons or, occasionally, musicians,

Pottery was the chief means of expression of all early civilisations of this area.

The finest hand-woven textiles of the Tiahuanaco designs were angular and squared-off, without loops or curves.

Ornaments were made of shell, often inlaid with precious metals and semiprecious stones,

Bowls, drinking vessels, masks, and ornaments, mostly in gold or silver and either cold-hammered or cast, suggests that there must have been an industry producing such objects.

The grave offerings of the Chimus were like those of other cultures: foodstuffs, tools, pottery, textiles.

The Inca ruling caste surpassed all of its predecessors in imposing its will on the various Indian tribes.

In the Inca Culture, it is in objects destined for the aristocracy that we find a certain artistic freedom combined with a high level of craftsmanship.

There were sumptuous ceremonial robes of the Inca overlords, which were made by their concubines, or those of the Inca himself.

Palaces and houses had ornamental facades, and their rooms were magnificently furnished with superb hangings and decorations in precious metals.

The two musical instruments which are still the favourites of the Indians in Peru and Bolivia are the panpipes and skin drum.

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