{
"data": {
"id": 129799,
"accession_number": "1952.233",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Backrest of a Litter, 1185\u20131275 (radiocarbon date, 95.4% probability). Central Andes, North Coast, Chim\u00fa people, late Intermediate period. Mixed media: wood, gold alloy, pigment, shell inlay; overall: 60.4 x 95 cm (23 3/4 x 37 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1952.233",
"current_location": "232 Andean",
"title": "Backrest of a Litter",
"creation_date": "1185\u20131275 (radiocarbon date, 95.4% probability)",
"creation_date_earliest": 1185,
"creation_date_latest": 1275,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Central Andes, North Coast, Chim\u00fa people, late Intermediate period"
],
"technique": "mixed media: wood, gold alloy, pigment, shell inlay",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Art of the Americas",
"collection": "AA - Andes",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 60.4 x 95 cm (23 3/4 x 37 3/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.604,
"height_inch": 23,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.75,
"width": 0.95,
"width_inch": 37,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.375
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 300804,
"title": "Treasures of Peruvian Gold",
"description": "Treasures of Peruvian Gold. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 23-April 3, 1966).",
"opening_date": "1966-02-23T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Ancient Arts of the Andes, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (January 26- March 29, 1954).",
"opening_date": "1954-01-26T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Treasures of Peruvian Gold, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 23- April 3, 1996).",
"opening_date": "1996-02-23T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "John Wise, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "?-1952",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1952-",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Cinnabar, a toxic mercuric sulfide, was used to color the red background and faces of the figures.",
"description": "This rare, dramatic object served as the back support of a litter carried by human porters, a mode of transport reserved for honored members of many societies without draft animals or wheeled vehicles. The simple, bold figures\u2014perhaps a Chim\u00fa lord and four officials\u2014all wear wide collars, tunics, and crescent headdresses that are either brightly painted or covered with golden but now-corroded sheet metal. The holes at the bottom probably served as lashing points for a beam that supported the litter's seat.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60763237"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1952.233-backrest-of-a-litter"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "\"Art and Archaeology at the Cleveland Museum of Art.\" Archaeology 6, no. 4 (1953)",
"page_number": "p. 202",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/41663172"
},
{
"citation": "Bennett, Wendell Clark. Ancient Arts of the Andes. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1954.",
"page_number": "p. 120, fig. 137",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 351",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n67"
},
{
"citation": "Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, and Jay I. Kislak Collection (Library of Congress). Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. Cambridge: The Museum, 1937.",
"page_number": "p. 68",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 299",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n323"
},
{
"citation": "Glubok, Shirley, Shirley Glubok, and Gerard Nook. The Art of Ancient Peru. New York: Harper & Row, 1966.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. Selected Works: Cleveland Museum of Art. 1967.",
"page_number": "p. 235",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 299",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n323"
},
{
"citation": "Howard, Cecil, and J. H. Parry. Pizarro and the Conquest of Peru. London: Cassell, 1970.",
"page_number": "p. 76",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Masada, Yoshio. Ancient American Art (Japan, Gakken Co. Ltd, 1973)",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 403",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n423"
},
{
"citation": "Scott, John F. Latin American Art: Ancient to Modern. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 338",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Bergh, Susan E. \"Fragment of the Chim\u00fa Prisoner Textile\" published on the occasion of Enchanted: Visual Histories of the Ancient Andes, July 30-November 14, 2021, Menil Collection (2021).",
"page_number": "fig. 8",
"url": "https://www.menil.org/read/online-features/enchanted/weaving-the-world/chimu-prisoner-textile"
},
{
"citation": "Young, Michelle, Colin Cooke, Richard Burger, Emily Kaplan, Gabriel Prieto Jacob Bongers, et al. \"Mass spectrometry measurements of mercury isotope ratios support geochemical sourcing of archaeological cinnabar in the Andean region.\" PLoS One 20(7): e0326414.",
"page_number": "",
"url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0326414"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1952.233",
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"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 129799,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1952-06-23T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1185,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1185\u20131275 (radiocarbon date, 95.4% probability)",
"collapse_artists": false,
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"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Front of a Litter"
],
"is_highlight": true,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 06:41:55.454000"
}
}