Raoul D’Harcourt, one of the foremost authorities on the textiles of pre-Columbian and colonial Peru, in 1934 published his Les Textiles anciens du Pérou et leurs techniques. This immediately became the standard compendium on the subject. Unfortunately only a limited number of copies were printed, which reduced its accessibility. In the Ciba Review, Vol. 12, #136 of February, 1960, much of this appeared, along with diagrams and colored reproductions, in an English translation.
Now we have this second English version, subsidized by the Bollingen Foundation, which uses essentially the same colored plates but presents us additionally with a longer selection of monochrome photographs, more of the author’s excellent diagrams of diverse weaves and knots, an expanded bibliography brought up to date, and some additional material from the author’s late researches.
The work concerns itself primarily with techniques. Its plan is lucid, successively taking up weaving, plaiting, network, and embroidery. The 117 monochrome photographs of pieces of textiles are of course to illustrate the various techniques, but in some cases they fail for lack of color contrast. Certainly the incomparable beauty of many of the pieces is not remotely suggested, though in fairness it must be said that the prime purpose of this book is not artistic.
One of the better features of the book is the extended coverage given to the famous Paracas mantle now in the Brooklyn Museum. Each section of the figured border is individually photographed (here color would have been of inestimable value) and fully described in the Description of Plates. The colored plate of the Paracas mantle unaccountably cuts off its lower fringe, thus reducing its aesthetic appeal.
A very small and inadequate map is provided. This reviewer believes that a chart of Peruvian archaeological levels with a more thorough discussion of textiles in their temporal and spatial relationships would have enriched the book.
Finally one wonders whether a real need for this translation existed. For the specialist in textiles there was always D’Harcourt’s first French version at hand. For the general Peruvianist or the layman who reads only English the Ciba version admirably displayed the variety, ingenuity, and splendor of this ancient art. Only in the close description of the Paracas garment can this version be considered by the Peruvianist superior to the Ciba translation—for the interest in these wonderful figures really centers in them as art motifs and mythological representations.
The fullness of the diagrams, plates, and bibliography will in any case make this University of Washington edition a necessary addition to the shelves of the university library.
It has been a cliché since the days of Cieza de León that Peru displayed its artistic wonders most memorably in its highland stonework. After one has studied D’Harcourt’s diagrams, displaying the abundance of invention and the infinite care of these people, he could well prefer these textiles as the true shibboleth of their genius.
