Collection record · Dress & textiles
Cloth of gold with felines and eagles
The collection record classifies this work as textile. It is dated 1225–75. Recorded culture or place: Northeast Iran.
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A closer look at the details.
- Museum title
- Cloth of gold with felines and eagles
- Date
- 1225–75
- Culture / origin
- Northeast Iran
- Materials and technique
- Silk and gold thread: lampas
- Dimensions
- Overall: 170.5 x 109 cm (67 1/8 x 42 15/16 in.); Mounted: 179.1 x 118.7 x 13.3 cm (70 1/2 x 46 3/4 x 5 1/4 in.)
- Artist / maker
- Not specified by the museum
- Museum
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Accession number
- 1990.2
FROM THE MUSEUM
In the museum’s words
The following description is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s original English record.
Mongol taste for luxury was equated with gold, symbol of imperial authority, power, and legitimacy. This splendid cloth of gold-exceptionally large and luxurious-may have enriched the interior of a palace or a majestic tent. The golden pattern, although tarnished on the faded red silk ground, features scalloped medallions with felines whose long tails terminate in dragons’ heads amid elegant floral vines. Double-headed eagles form interstitial motifs on the floral ground. A radiant gold-on-gold band of pseudo-Arabic script enriches the top, woven with gold strips wrapped around a silk core on a ground of flat strips of gold, immediately beneath the pattern testing area.
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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.
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