Brocaded velvet cover with sunbursts (early 1600s): Art, History and Details

Brocaded velvet cover with sunbursts (early 1600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The rare sunburst pattern contrasts in its boldness with delicate floral motifs; the sunburst’s dynamic rays terminate in small tulips bearing hyacinths that alternate with peacock feathers. Interstitial motifs display the favorite telltale Turkish flora of carnations, tulips, and hyacinths. Quantities of luxury textiles were made for the Ottoman sultans, who were the largest consumers of textiles in the Western world by the mid-1500s and early 1600s. Textiles were lavishly displayed in ceremonies, presented as splendid robes of honor, and visible as furnishing fabrics in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul where they spoke to the vast power and unfathomable wealth of the Ottoman Empire.

Object facts

• Title: Brocaded velvet cover with sunbursts
• Date: early 1600s
• Culture: Turkey, Istanbul or Bursa
• Type: Textile
• Technique: velvet, brocaded: silk, gilt- and silver-metal thread, and cotton
• Dimensions: Overall: 180.7 x 128.3 cm (71 1/8 x 50 1/2 in.); Mounted: 185.4 x 134 cm (73 x 52 3/4 in.)
• Collection: T - Islamic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 2008.146

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Electronic Calogue: Francesca Galloway; Asian Textiles, I., 7th October to 12th November 2008, pp. 10-11.
• Mackie, Louise W. "Ottoman Opulence." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 49, no. 2 (February 2009): 5-7.
• Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 53 no. 03, May/June 2013

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.