Skip Navigation

Rug

Arts of the Americas

This carpet is most likely a prayer rug used in church that belonged to an elite woman in Spanish colonial Peru. Its design features a man and woman attended by an enslaved black figure. The woman dons upper-class European attire, a social signifier embraced by wealthy Creoles (American-born Spaniards) to underscore their socio-racial and cultural ties to the Old World. Despite their unprecedented purchasing power, Creoles lacked political equity. The resulting tension paved the way for the many wars of independence from Spain in the nineteenth century.
MEDIUM Wool and cotton
DATES 18th century
PERIOD Colonial Period
DIMENSIONS 53 x 39 3/4 x 1/4 in. (134.6 x 101 x 0.6 cm)  (show scale)
COLLECTIONS Arts of the Americas
ACCESSION NUMBER 50.155
CREDIT LINE Gift of Mrs. George E. Vincent
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Rug, 18th century. Wool and cotton, 53 x 39 3/4 x 1/4 in. (134.6 x 101 x 0.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. George E. Vincent, 50.155. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 50.155_SL3.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 50.155_SL3.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
RECORD COMPLETENESS
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.