Description

Elaborate dance cape representing the death of the last indigenous leader of the Inca Tupac Amaru. The form of the cape consists of a square piece of textile sewn to a half-moon piece of fabric that has a small hole to fit around the wearer’s neck. The background textile is purple. There is yellow fringe around most of the perimeter of the object. The images on the half-moon portion of the cape are ornamental. There are birds, flowers and leaves sewn into the purple background with silver, red, pink, green and yellow fibre. There are also silver and bronze-coloured sequins adorning these decorative motifs. At the top of the square portion of the cape, letters in dark purple read “Muerte de Tupac Amaru” (death of Tupac Amaru). On the left side of the title, two men have green and silver rope wrapped around them, as if they are tied up. On the right side of the title, a woman is tied with the same rope to a silver, pink, green and orange pole. Directly below the title, five men in military dress stand in a row; they wear green caps, silver jackets with red trim and gold buttons, pink pants and brown boots. They all hold yellow swords by their sides. On either side of the row of men, there are men in striped shirts riding silver and brown horses. The horses are running in opposite directions. In the lower right and lower left corners of the cape, there are two more men on horses. A green and silver rope connects each horseman to the hands and feet of the figure of Tupac Amaru, lying in the middle of the configuration of horses; he is being quartered. Tupac Amaru wears a yellow jacket, pink shirt, purple pants and light purple socks. Below the body of Tupac Amaru, there are two mirrors in embossed metal frames sewn onto the textile. The back of the cape is unlined, it is a loose weave fabric with various stitches in it. There is a piece of tape stuck to the back, it has a number written on it in blue pen.