Brocaded velvet cushion cover with carnations (late 1500s): Art, History and Details

Brocaded velvet cushion cover with carnations (late 1500s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The lappet designs on the top and bottom identify this textile as an Ottoman cushion cover for a royal divan, or sofa, used in the royal court. Its bold, graphic pattern is made up of carnations in three staggered rows. Carnations are distinguished from other floral motifs by their sawtooth petals and serrated leaves.

Object facts

• Title: Brocaded velvet cushion cover with carnations
• Date: late 1500s
• Culture: Turkey, Bursa
• Type: Velvet
• Technique: velvet, brocaded: silk, gilt-and-silver-metal thread
• Dimensions: Overall: 128.9 x 66.7 cm (50 3/4 x 26 1/4 in.); Mounted: 136.5 x 74.3 cm (53 3/4 x 29 1/4 in.)
• Collection: T - Islamic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1984.27

A detail from the museum

Either end of the textile has six niches brocaded in gold and silver, each containing a stylized carnation in green and red cut velvet.

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. James Albert Ford, Leonard C. Hanna Jr., The John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust, Mrs. Hermon A. Kelley, John D. Rockefeller Jr., Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance, Mrs. Harry Stratton, and J. H. Wade by exchange

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art. The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1914.
• 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.

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.