# Andean Woven Graphic Systems

> The graphic systems of Andean cloth, the region's most prestigious medium, in which every motif is built on the warp-and-weft grid. Wari tapestry tunics repeat staff-bearers and profile heads in columns, compressing and rotating them toward the edges until figure turns into geometry. Inca state cloth reduced design to t'oqapu, square cells of geometric signs granted as marks of rank, and living Quechua and Aymara weaving bands named pallay motifs between stripes.

- Period: c. 600–present
- Where: Latin America & Caribbean
- Origin: Central Andes: Wari (Ayacucho, c. 600–1000), Inca Cusco (c. 1400–1572), continuing in Quechua and Aymara weaving communities of Peru and Bolivia (Chinchero, Tarabuco, Jalq'a)
- Branch: Traditions & vernacular
- Also known as: T'oqapu (tocapu), Wari tapestry tunics, Inca cumbi cloth, Pallay (Quechua pick-up motifs)
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/andean-woven-graphics/

## Use it with care

Andean textile motifs are living cultural property: pallay designs are named and taught within particular Quechua and Aymara communities, regional styles such as Jalq'a and Tarabuco mark community identity, and Inca t'oqapu were state-controlled insignia of rank. Do not lift motifs from museum tunics or market weavings onto products as generic 'Inca pattern'. Commission weavers through community-run organisations such as the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco, pay and credit them, and record which community each motif comes from.

## How it works

- Construct every motif on the thread grid: orthogonal edges, stepped diagonals and no free curves.
- Repeat one figure in columns or cells and vary it by rotation, mirroring, colour swap and compression rather than by drawing new figures.
- Make distortion a layout rule: stretch and squeeze the repeated figure toward the edges until it reads as pure geometry.
- Use a square cell of geometric signs, the t'oqapu, as a unit of rank and identity, so that the number and placement of cells carry status.
- Band named pallay motifs between plain stripes so the cloth reads as a sequence of registers.
- Set strong natural-dye fields (cochineal red, indigo, gold, brown, white) edge to edge without shading.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Modular grid](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/modular-grid/) (defining)
- [Column grid](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/column-grid/) (characteristic)
- [All-over field](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-over-field/) (characteristic)
- [Framed panels](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/framed-panels/) (characteristic)
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (characteristic)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Repetition & rhythm](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/) (defining)
- [Horror vacui](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/) (characteristic)
- [Flat hierarchy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-hierarchy/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Bitmap & pixel](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/bitmap-and-pixel/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Earth & mineral](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/earth-and-mineral/) (defining)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (characteristic)
- [Full polychrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-polychrome/) (characteristic)
- [Complementary clash](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/complementary-clash/) (occasional)
- [Dark ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dark-ground/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Rectilinear](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rectilinear/) (defining)
- [Angular & zigzag](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/angular-and-zigzag/) (characteristic)
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (characteristic)
- [Distortion & exaggeration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/distortion-and-exaggeration/) (characteristic)
- [Non-representational](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/non-representational/) (characteristic)
- [Pictogram](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pictogram/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (characteristic)

### Ornament
- [Folk & sacred symbols](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/folk-and-sacred-symbols/) (defining)
- [Geometric tessellation](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-tessellation/) (characteristic)
- [Abundant decoration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/abundant-decoration/) (characteristic)
- [Borders & frames](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/borders-and-frames/) (characteristic)

### Imagery
- [Pattern & repeat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pattern-and-repeat/) (defining)

### Medium & production
- [Textile & craft](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/textile-and-craft/) (defining)

### Tone & intent
- [Authoritative & institutional](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/authoritative-and-institutional/) (defining)
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (characteristic)
- [Spiritual & sacred](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/spiritual-and-sacred/) (characteristic)

Avoids: Organic flow, Whiplash line, Naturalistic depiction, Illusion of depth, Gradients, Generous white space, Straight photography

Palette: #a3262a, #24345c, #d9a62e, #5a3a22, #ece3cf, #3d6b4a

Typefaces: T'oqapu cells as a sign set standing where lettering would (their reading as writing is rejected by much current scholarship), Grid-built letterforms that share the woven cell, such as bitmap faces like Silkscreen, Quechua and Aymara orthographies set in a sturdy humanist sans for accompanying text

Known for: Wari tapestry tunics with staff-bearer and profile-head columns (c. 600–1000; e.g. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dumbarton Oaks); Inca royal all-t'oqapu tunic, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC; Inca black-and-white checkerboard tunics, among the standard types analysed by John H. Rowe (1979); Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco, founded by Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez; Jalq'a and Tarabuco weaving, Sucre, Bolivia (ASUR revival programme)

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Led to: [Neo-Andean Architecture (Cholets)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/neo-andean-cholet.md) (2005–present)
- Alike in its design choices: [Adinkra & Kente Symbol Systems](https://stylogeny.com/styles/adinkra-kente.md) (1700–present), 75% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Diné (Navajo) Weaving Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/dine-weaving.md) (1700–present), 74% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Batik Pattern Tradition](https://stylogeny.com/styles/batik.md) (1600–present), 69% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Amazigh Sign System & Tifinagh](https://stylogeny.com/styles/amazigh-sign-system.md) (c. 0–present), 67% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Ndebele Geometric Painting](https://stylogeny.com/styles/ndebele-painting.md) (1940–present), 67% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Bògòlanfini Mud Cloth](https://stylogeny.com/styles/bogolanfini.md) (1900–present), 66% alike

## Real works

- [Tunic (Inca key design)](https://clevelandart.org/art/1957.136): Inca weavers (unrecorded), c. 1400–1540, The Cleveland Museum of Art
- [Tapestry Tunic](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/833953): Wari weavers (unrecorded), 7th–9th century, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- [Tunic](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/675980): Wari artist, 650–1000 CE, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- [Tunic (checkerboard with stepped yoke)](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/751901): Inca artist(s), 1400–1535 CE, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- [Warp Patterned Cloth](https://clevelandart.org/art/1947.189): Weavers of Salinas, Bolivia (unrecorded), late 1800s, The Cleveland Museum of Art

## Sources

- Andrew James Hamilton, on the Dumbarton Oaks t'oqapu tunic, ReVista (Harvard DRCLAS), 2024: https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/?p=83003
- John H. Rowe, 'Standardization in Inca Tapestry Tunics', The Junius B. Bird Pre-Columbian Textile Conference (Textile Museum & Dumbarton Oaks, 1979)
- Wikipedia: Tocapu

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Andean Woven Graphic Systems”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/andean-woven-graphics/