5.2 Materials, Processes, and Techniques in Indigenous American Art

Europeans ranked gold highest. Many Indigenous American cultures did not. In the Andes, fine textiles and featherwork were among the most prized materials; metal was valued but ranked below them. In Mesoamerica, green jadeite and green quetzal feathers were treasured because green suggested water, maize and life. When you see these materials, think 'rare, hard to get, and hard to work,' because that was where the prestige came from.

Ruler's feather headdress (probably of Motecuhzoma II) (Mexica (Aztec); 1428–1520 CE; feathers (quetzal and cotinga) and gold). It fans out more than a meter wide: long, iridescent green tail feathers of the quetzal, a tropical bird traded from far to the south, over bands of bright blue cotinga feathers, with small gold plaques. Specialist featherworkers, called amanteca, tied and glued thousands of feathers in overlapping layers onto a backing.

The link to Motecuhzoma II (ruled 1502–1520) is a tradition, not a proven fact, which is why the CED says 'probably.' The headdress reached Europe in the 1500s, appears in a 1596 inventory of a Habsburg collection, and is now in the Weltmuseum Wien in Vienna. Mexico has asked for its return; Austria has said it is too fragile to travel.

City of Cusco, including Qorikancha (Inka main temple), Santo Domingo (Spanish colonial convent), and Walls at Saqsa Waman (Sacsayhuaman) (central highlands, Peru; Inka; c. 1440 CE; convent added 1550–1650 CE; andesite). The ruler Pachacuti rebuilt Cusco as the capital of an empire the Inka called Tawantinsuyu, 'the four parts together.' Inka ashlar masonry uses stones cut and ground so precisely that they fit without mortar. Masons shaped them with harder hammerstones and fitted them by trial and error. Walls lean slightly inward and doors and niches are trapezoid-shaped, both of which help in earthquakes.

The Qorikancha, the 'golden enclosure,' was the main temple, centered on the sun. Spanish accounts say its walls were sheathed in gold. After the conquest, the Spanish stripped it and built the Dominican church and convent of Santo Domingo directly on top, using the Inka walls as a foundation. Earthquakes in 1650 and 1950 damaged the colonial buildings, but the curved Inka wall survived, a clear symbol of layered colonial history. Above the city, Saqsa Waman's three tiers of zigzag walls use enormous stones, some estimated at more than 100 tons.

Maize cobs (Inka; c. 1440–1533 CE; sheet metal/repoussé, metal alloys). Ears of corn made from thin metal sheets. Repoussé means hammering the metal from the back to raise the kernels. Maize fed the empire and was brewed into chicha, a beer used in rituals. Spanish writers described a garden at the Qorikancha with life-size plants made of gold and silver; almost all such objects were melted down, which makes these rare survivors.

All-T'oqapu tunic (Inka; 1450–1540 CE; camelid fiber and cotton). T'oqapu are small square geometric designs. Most Inka tunics use a few repeated patterns; this one is covered entirely with different t'oqapu, including a small checkerboard like the pattern on Inka military tunics. Because it is so unusual, scholars think it belonged to the Sapa Inka (the ruler) and may have represented the many peoples and places under his rule. It is interlocking tapestry: dyed camelid (alpaca or vicuña) yarn woven tightly over cotton warp. The Inka gave fine cloth as royal gifts and even burned it as offerings. It's now at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.

Black-on-black ceramic vessel (Maria Martínez and Julian Martínez; Tewa, Puebloan, San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico; c. mid-20th century CE; blackware ceramic). Maria built pots by hand from coils of clay, with no wheel, then polished them with a smooth stone. Julian painted designs, such as feathers and the avanyu (water serpent), in a matte clay slip (liquid clay). The pots were fired under a layer of dried manure that cut off oxygen. This reduction firing turns the clay black; polished areas shine and painted areas stay dull, so the design is black on black. They developed it in the late 1910s, inspired by ancient pottery that archaeologists excavated nearby. Maria later signed her pots, which helped collectors see Pueblo pottery as art by named artists.