Alhambra hanging fragment with decorated bands (1300s): Art, History and Details

Alhambra hanging fragment with decorated bands (1300s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The ability to harmoniously combine intricate designs and varied colors was one of the unparalleled achievements of Islamic art. This silk curtain fragment reveals juxtapositions of large- and small-scaled patterns, woven with bold contrasting colors in bands of varying widths. Segments of Arabic text have been woven into the design. The repeated phrase good fortune and prosperity is woven in ivory silk in one of the narrow bands. In the wide band at the bottom, Kufic script in yellow silk extends the word beatitude.

Object facts

• Title: Alhambra hanging fragment with decorated bands
• Date: 1300s
• Culture: Spain, Granada
• Type: Textile
• Technique: Silk: lampas and taqueté weave
• Dimensions: Overall: 37.8 x 25.1 cm (14 7/8 x 9 7/8 in.); Mounted: 46.7 x 28.9 cm (18 3/8 x 11 3/8 in.)
• Collection: T - Islamic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1927.378

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Underhill, Gertrude. "A Group of Hispano-Moresque Silks." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 15, no. 3 (1928): 68-74.
• Mackie, Louise W. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century. Cleveland; New Haven: Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2015.
• "New in the Galleries.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 59, no. 6 (November/December 2019): Back cover.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.