Embroidered border and field of animals in large roundels (1000s–1100s): Art, History and Details

Embroidered border and field of animals in large roundels (1000s–1100s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This fragment preserves part of the main field and border of a large textile. At the top is a small segment of a roundel frame with fragments of a pair of confronted animals; at the lower right is part of a smaller roundel in which only the hind part of a lion or griffin remains. Below the roundels is a section of a wide border with a large bird wearing Sasanian flying ribbons about its neck. It is framed in a roundel formed by the tendrils of a scrolling vine. A narrow band at the bottom has a badly garbled Kufic inscription, which is upside down in relation to the rest of the pattern. Only the word "Allah" repeated twice can be deciphered.

Object facts

• Title: Embroidered border and field of animals in large roundels
• Date: 1000s–1100s
• Culture: Iraq, probably Baghdad, Seljuk period
• Type: Textile
• Technique: plain weave: silk warp and cotton weft (mulham): plain weave; silk and gold thread: embroidery, couched, split, running, and outline stitches:
• Dimensions: Overall: 26.7 x 12.4 cm (10 1/2 x 4 7/8 in.)
• Collection: T - Islamic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1952.257

A detail from the museum

Another fragment of this textile, lavishly embroidered with gilt-metal and silk thread on mulham, is now in the collection of the MFA Boston, 37.103.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lamm, C. J. Cotton in Mediaeval Textiles of the Near East. Paris: P. Geuthner, 1937.
• Wiet, Gaston. “Tissus Brodes Mesopotamiens.” Ars Islamica 4 (1937): 54–63.
• Niño, Felipa. Las mitras de Roda. Madrid: Instituto Diego Velazquez, 1941.

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.