Cloth of gold with winged lions and griffins (1225–75): Art, History and Details

Cloth of gold with winged lions and griffins (1225–75) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The Mongols created exceptionally sumptuous cloths of gold to symbolize their imperial authority and legitimacy, this being the most resplendent example known. Opulent expanses of gold thread enrich the roundels, lions, and griffins in striking contrast with the intricate brown silk foliate ground. The pattern integrates motifs from Iran—paired lions in roundels and paired griffins—and from China, cloud ornaments on the lions’ wings. They suggest it was woven in an imperial workshop in Central Asia where Iranian and Chinese craftsmen worked together with local artisans. The gold is on a paper substrate associated with Asia, whereas animal skin substrates were used in Islamic lands. It is woven in a new technique developed by Iranian weavers, a combination of two weaves known as lampas, which was adopted internationally.

Object facts

• Title: Cloth of gold with winged lions and griffins
• Date: 1225–75
• Culture: Central Asia
• Type: Textile
• Technique: Silk and gold thread: lampas
• Dimensions: Overall: 124 x 48.8 cm (48 13/16 x 19 3/16 in.); Mounted: 135.6 x 59.4 cm (53 3/8 x 23 3/8 in.)
• Collection: T - Islamic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1989.50

A detail from the museum

The tail of each paired griffin passes between its hind legs, loops around a rosette, and terminates in a feline head.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Museum, 1991.
• Interpretations: Sixty-Five Works from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991.
• Wardwell, Anne E. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (1991): 63-147.

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.