A Survey of Ancient Peruvian Art. 375 



of geometric with zoomorphic elements. The third and final 

 type might be described as curvilinear on account of the 

 predominance of curved lines. In this type zoomorphic and 

 anthropomorphic elements play a very important part. One 

 decoration of this final type seems to be of a simpler nature than 

 one other. It is made up of a series of large hollow squares 

 in stucco relief. Below them are some extraordinary figures 

 resembling conventionalized tapirs. These figures have their 

 "probosces" down and their "legs" to the observer's right with 

 their arched "backs" on the left. There are two of them under 

 each square.^'^ One is at a loss to explain this combination of 

 motifs and likewise the motifs themselves. More comprehen- 

 sible is the other specimen of this type. It is distinguished by a 

 very rich composition (still in the square-edged technique) made 

 up of conventionalized men, birds, fishes, crabs, lobsters and other 

 such things. It is plainly the work of a people who were closely 

 in contact with the sea. Two things are very interesting in 

 connection with the human figures, namely, that they wear pre- 

 cisely the same headdress as the figures already described as 

 occurring on the pottery of this period, and that, like those 

 figures, they have less than the real number of digits. The 

 crabs and lobsters in the design are almost life-like. Interwoven 

 with these elements is another one which is like nothing else in 

 Peruvian art. It is a curving device not unlike a W on which 

 are shown some of the animals referred to. The reader is 

 urged to turn to Plate XVI in Joyce (1912) for an adequate 

 presentation of this remarkable design. 



To sum up, then, our impressions of Chimu art, we will say 

 that it bears a general and marked resemblance to the Proto- 

 Chimu, both in the subject-matter and in the treatment. As is 

 only natural, there are accretions from the intervening arts, new 

 motifs and a new tendency to use dark-colored clay for vessels. 

 Likewise, it is not difficult to see in the remarkable wall-decora- 

 tions of this period an attempt to continue the tradition of richly 

 carved ornament found to be so prominent in Tiahuanaco II art. 

 The choice of material — stucco — is easy to explain on the ground 

 that the coast people were already used to stucco as a wall- 

 coating and that suitable stone for the purpose of carving into 

 bas-reliefs was scarce on the coast. 



See Squier, 1877, p. 154. 



