Fragment with peacocks in ogival pattern (1004–1260 (radiocarbon date, 95% probability)): Art, History and Details

Fragment with peacocks in ogival pattern (1004–1260 (radiocarbon date, 95% probability)) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Neither the design nor the technique of this silk provides clues to whether it was woven in Iran or Syria. As Iran and Iraq fell to the Mongol armies during the second quarter of the 1200s, many artisans fled to Syria, taking with them the techniques and patterns with which they were familiar. The inscriptions are purely decorative.

Object facts

• Title: Fragment with peacocks in ogival pattern
• Date: 1004–1260 (radiocarbon date, 95% probability)
• Culture: Iran or Iraq, possibly Rayy
• Type: Textile
• Technique: Silk: plain weave with supplementary weft
• Dimensions: Overall: 24.1 x 22.9 cm (9 1/2 x 9 in.)
• Collection: T - Islamic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1939.506

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Weibel, Adèle Coulin. Two Thousand Years of Textiles; The Figured Textiles of Europe and the Near East. New York: Published for the Detroit Institute of Arts [by] Pantheon Books, 1952.
• Lemberg, Mechthild. “The Buyid Silks of the Abegg Foundation, Berne.” Bulletin du CIETA. Centre international d'étude des textiles anciens. No. 37 1973 – I. p. 11–54
• Shepherd, Dorothy G. "Medieval Persian Silks in Fact and Fancy: A Refutation of the Riggisberg Report". Bulletin Du CIETA, Centre International D'étude Des Textiles Anciens (1974) 39–40.

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.