Fragment with gold leaf lions (1000s–1100s): Art, History and Details

Fragment with gold leaf lions (1000s–1100s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Gold was block-printed onto mulham cloth with figures of lions—symbols of the royal hunt and imperial power. Gold lions adorned with collars and palmettes enliven squares on dark-brown and undyed mulham groups in a checkerboard layout. The pattern was printed with several blocks on the mulham surface. The process included drawing outlines with black ink and block printing with gold powder and dark-brown pigment, each mixed with a binding medium. The gold paint was flattened with rubbing, which created a good imitation of gold leaf.

Object facts

• Title: Fragment with gold leaf lions
• Date: 1000s–1100s
• Culture: Iran or Iraq, Seljuk period
• Type: Textile
• Technique: Silk warp and cotton weft (mulham): plain weave; gold leaf, block printed
• Dimensions: Overall: 32.1 x 40 cm (12 5/8 x 15 3/4 in.)
• Collection: T - Islamic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1950.558

A detail from the museum

This is one of the comparatively few printed textiles with extensive use of costly gold to have survived from the medieval period in Iran or Iraq.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• 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.