Curtain panel (sitara) (1800s): Art, History and Details

Curtain panel (sitara) (1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

During the 1700s, stunning large embroidered door curtains such as these hung across doorways onto interior courtyards of multistoried residences. Light entered through their loosely woven linen ground while the reversible embroidered decoration provided beauty and privacy. Such curtains have three embroidered widths, the third missing here, joined by colorful plain silk ribbons flanking a French floral ribbon in the center.

Object facts

• Title: Curtain panel (sitara)
• Date: 1800s
• Culture: Africa, North Africa, Algeria, Algerian weaver and embroiderer
• Type: Embroidery
• Technique: Linen, silk, gold, silver, dye
• Dimensions: Overall: 295.3 x 135.9 cm (116 1/4 x 53 1/2 in.)
• Collection: T - Islamic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1916.1229

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade

Further reading listed by the museum

• Victoria and Albert Museum, and A. J. B. Wace. Catalogue of Algerian Embroideries. London: Published under the authority of the Board of Education, 1935.
• Stone, Caroline. The Embroideries of North Africa. Burnt Mill, Harlow, Essex: Longman, 1985.

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.