Cloth with Border of Peacocks and Vegetation (1600s–1700s): Art, History and Details

Cloth with Border of Peacocks and Vegetation (1600s–1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This large cloth shows a repeated pattern of confronted peacocks flanked by decorative motifs. More birds appear in the register above, and a pattern of four-legged animals is in the register below.

Object facts

• Title: Cloth with Border of Peacocks and Vegetation
• Date: 1600s–1700s
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Lace
• Technique: plain weave bleached linen (est.): needle lace, burato (twined ground and darned in one direction)
• Dimensions: Overall: 80.3 x 334.3 cm (31 5/8 x 131 5/8 in.)
• Collection: T - Lace
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1916.1884

A detail from the museum

Based on the ancient belief that the peacock’s flesh never decayed, they became a symbol of immortality and the Resurrection of Christ.

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Ricci, Elisa. Old Italian Lace. 1913.
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The Annette Finnigan Collection of Laces. [Houston]: [Biggers printing Company], 1940.

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.