Floral Panel, Probably from a Curtain (early 1600s): Art, History and Details

Floral Panel, Probably from a Curtain (early 1600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Natural forms and brilliant colors of silk thread radiate in this embroidery. The refined floral sprays are offset in successive rows and repeated every sixth row. Flies, moths, and other insects are scattered among them, and a seated squirrel eats a hazelnut. The profusion of flowers and plants, such as thistles, hazelnuts, and foxgloves, were probably copied from pattern books that were increasingly available to embroiderers. Only a master embroiderer could have created such splendor evidenced here.

Object facts

• Title: Floral Panel, Probably from a Curtain
• Date: early 1600s
• Culture: England, James I Period, early 17th century
• Type: Embroidery
• Technique: Silk, linen; plain weave, embroidery: couch and stem stitches
• Dimensions: Overall: 67.3 x 79.1 cm (26 1/2 x 31 1/8 in.); Mounted: 78.7 x 90.8 cm (31 x 35 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Textiles
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1933.421

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Gertrude Underhill. “Old Embroideries in the Museum." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 17, no. 8 (1930): 151-54.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• Preisner, Olga K. "The Art of the Needle". Exhibition catalog for exhibition of the same name at The Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA. October 23-December 21, 1980

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.