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PERUVIAN ART 
THE FISH 
PLATE [| 
The Peruvians of the coast region worshipped the sea as one of their 
gods and the fish, being the natural emblem of the sea, undoubtedly 
accounts for the frequency with which it appears in all their arts. We 
find it woven, embroidered, and painted on cloth; molded, incised, and 
painted on pottery; and represented in various ways on their works in 
metal, wood, stone, and bone. I shall show some of the conventionalized 
figures that plainly represent fish; others that I have found, during my 
long experience with art students, where the fish motive is very rarely 
suspected, and some intermediate figures that I believe will enable the 
student to recognize this motive in the higher forms of Peruvian art. 
The first three figures on this Plate plainly represent fish, although 
degeneration has made considerable progress. They are shown as if 
seen from above, a common way of representing fish with many primitive 
peoples. 
Fig. 1 is painted on a large piece of cloth which formed the outer 
wrapping of a mummy bundle from Surco. It is painted in black except 
the curved line representing the gill openings and the fins. The six 
small squares show the dorsal fin. | 
Fig. 2 is a very common form, in fact the typical Peruvian fish. 
If we study carefully all the forms on Plates I and II we shall find that 
the greater part of them are but modifications of this figure. We shall 
find the number of points projecting from the sides more or less, or two 
fish derived from this form interlocked, as shown in Fig. 7. 
Fig. 3 is from the wrapping of a mummy bundle found in the vicinity 
of Lima. The lines representing gill openings are straight in this 
case. The characteristic projecting points from the sides are present. 
Fig. 4 is a design not uncommon in tapestry from the coast region in 
the vicinity of Lima. It consists of four fish heads, in colors, sur- 
rounding a fret. During the many years that design students have 
worked from these Peruvian collections, I do not remember a single case 
in which the fish motive was suspected in this figure until I had made it 
clear by drawing the forms shown in Figs. 5 and 6. The character 
of such a design when it is woven in the cloth, in a variety of colors, is 
by no means as easily recognized as when drawn on paper in black and 
white. 
