Collection record · Dress & textiles
Fragment
The collection record classifies this work as textile. It is dated 900s–1000s. Recorded culture or place: Byzantium.
Explore the object recordOBJECT RECORD
A closer look at the details.
- Museum title
- Fragment
- Date
- 900s–1000s
- Culture / origin
- Byzantium
- Materials and technique
- Silk and gold: compound twill, brocaded
- Dimensions
- Overall: 46.4 x 54.6 cm (18 1/4 x 21 1/2 in.); Mounted: 61.9 x 67 x 2.5 cm (24 3/8 x 26 3/8 x 1 in.)
- Artist / maker
- Not specified by the museum
- Museum
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Accession number
- 1950.2
FROM THE MUSEUM
In the museum’s words
The following description is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s original English record.
The design of this textile offers an interesting iconographic puzzle. The double-headed eagle was a common motif in the art of the Near East in ancient times and from there seems to have found its way into Byzantine and European art. The animal tail ending in an animal's head is also found in Near Eastern art and is particularly noted in textiles of the Seljuk period (1000s–1100s) in Persia. However, the division of the roundel frame into two halves ending in animal heads is not known in the art of the Near East nor is the continuous knot motif which occurs just behind the animal head of the frames. Both of these motifs are familiar in the art of the Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, and Scandinavian peoples of Europe.
FOLLOW THE SOURCE
Text and image sources
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund · CC0
The summary is based on public collection data. Refer to the museum’s latest record for the title, date and attribution.
Open the complete museum record View the open-access policyTHE VISITOR BOOK
What caught your eye?
Opening the visitor book…
