Object Record
Images
Metadata
Artist |
Davis, Patty Elwin |
Title |
Conquest of the Incas |
Date |
1996 |
Medium |
hand appliquéd and quilted fabric |
Culture |
American |
Object ID |
1999.100 |
Collection |
Contemporary Art (1970-present) |
Object Name |
Quilt |
Credit line |
Gift of the Artist |
Didactic Information |
New York textile artist Patty Elwin Davis has been quilting for more than three decades and is renowned for her handmade narrative quilts. Davis's extensive travels and her background as an art historian have provided much of the inspiration for her quilt designs. Conquest of the Incas, tells the story of the Spanish conquest of Peru and how Francisco Pizarro defeated Lord Inca Atahualpa's army. The top half of the quilt shows how the Incas lived prior to the invasion of the Spanish. The bottom half of the quilt depicts Pizarro's arrival at the coast of Peru in May of 1532 and his ambush and capture of Atahualpa. Davis illustrates this encounter and the gold that was paid for Atahualpa's ransom, and his eventual death, which signaled the beginning of the end of the Inca Empire. In the last three squares, Davis displays life after the conquest of the Spanish, including forced baptisms, the seizure and rape of Inca women, and the smallpox epidemic that reduced the Inca population by nearly 75 percent in fifty years. (December 2015) |