Fragment of a Band with Confronted Birds, a Formal Tree, and Smaller Animals (1500s): Art, History and Details

Fragment of a Band with Confronted Birds, a Formal Tree, and Smaller Animals (1500s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Birds, perhaps eagles, confront each other on this corner fragment. Of particular interest is how they are surrounded by smaller animals and framed by a geometric structure. This could reference a family’s heraldry, or show the lace maker’s skill in rendering figural and geometric motifs.

Object facts

• Title: Fragment of a Band with Confronted Birds, a Formal Tree, and Smaller Animals
• Date: 1500s
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Lace
• Technique: Bleached linen (est.): needle lace, burato (twined ground and darned in one direction)
• Dimensions: Overall: 39.1 x 45.6 cm (15 3/8 x 17 15/16 in.)
• Collection: T - Lace
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1920.1142

A detail from the museum

The word lace derives from the Latin laqueus, meaning noose.

Collection credit

Gift of J. H. Wade

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.