Peruvian antiquities / by Mariano Edward Rivero and John James von Tschudi ; translated by Francis L. Hawks.

  • Mariano Eduardo de Rivero y Ustariz
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Peruvian antiquities / by Mariano Edward Rivero and John James von Tschudi ; translated by Francis L. Hawks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    authors, and indicate to us two epochs very different in the ,Peruvian art, at least so far as concerns architecture; one before and the other after the arrival of the first Inca. To the first period pertains the palace known under the name of ruins of the Gran- Chimu^ in the department of Libertad ; the ruins of Huanuco el Viejo [old Iluanuco] ; those of the temple of Pachacamac ; those of the isles of the lake Titicaca ; the formidable pyramid, colossus of stone and statues of Tiahuanacu on the southern shore of the lake of Chuquito. The second epoch comprises the remainder of the depart- ment of Cuzco, and of others which we shall speak of in this chapter. It would be a vain undertaking to indicate the positive age of these monuments, as all certain means of investiga- tion are wanting: the only result we can obtain is, that they are of an epoch anterior to the arrival of the first Inca; and that in Peru, as in Mexico, the people were found in a more advanced state in the arts than the greater part of the na- tions of Northern Europe. With these facts before us, the assertion of Garcilasso, that before the light introduced by the first Inca the natives of Peru were little better than tame beasts, collected in groups, without the slightest aspect of towns, streets, squares, etc.; that some, through fear of war, inhabited steep rocks, valleys, natural fissures, caves, or the hollows of trees, etc., is very remarkable ; an assertion which the same author contra- dicts when he eulogizes the admirable architectural works which the Incas met with in their conquests, in regions where the new civilization had certainly not penetrated. In treating, in this chapter, of the cultivation of the arts among the ancient Peruvians, we must limit ourselves to an exposition of the state in which they were found upon the arrival of the Spaniards, without involving ourselves in in-
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