Fragment (before 1961): Art, History and Details

Fragment (before 1961) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The fragment preserves a tree of life flanked by a pair of large confronted simurghs, resembling peacocks, that grasp ibexes in their talons. A pair of small goats stand confronted and regardant at the base of the tree. Behind each ibex is a small palmette tree. The fragment constitutes the center third of a complete loom piece. The pattern is dark purplish brown on a golden brown ground.

Object facts

• Title: Fragment
• Date: before 1961
• Culture: Iraq or Iran, in the style of the Buyid period (945–1055)
• Type: Textile
• Technique: Silk: lampas weave
• Dimensions: Overall: 71.1 x 95 cm (28 x 37 3/8 in.)
• Collection: T - Islamic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1961.34

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “Year in Review 1961.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 48, no. 9, 1961, pp. 219–251.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.

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.