Fragments with Griffins in Roundels (before 1966): Art, History and Details

Fragments with Griffins in Roundels (before 1966) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This fragment consists of two almost complete roundels in lower right and fragment of third one at the left, plus parts of other roundels. In the roundels are a pair of confronted, winged griffins either side of a "palm" tree. Heavy baroque floral motifs fill the spaces between the main motifs and the roundel frame. The palm grows out of a curious foliate device at the bottom. The roundel frame has pearl borders between which are little circles about 2 cm. in diameter with a series of elegant tiny motifs beginning with a star at the four cardinal points and repeated, left and right, from top to bottom, are a lion, reclining winged ibex, reclining horned animal (possibly a bull), then center star on side, then winged griffin or goat(?), peacock, and lion regardant. In the interspaces are large circular motifs filled with stylized floral motifs and pendant floral motifs growing out in the four angles.

Object facts

• Title: Fragments with Griffins in Roundels
• Date: before 1966
• Culture: Iran or Iraq, in the style of the Seljuq period (1037–1194)
• Type: Textile
• Technique: Silk: lampas weave
• Dimensions: Overall: 41 x 32.8 cm (16 1/8 x 12 15/16 in.)
• Collection: T - Islamic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1966.136.a

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Werner Abegg

Further reading listed by the museum

• “Annual Report for 1966.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 54, no. 6, 1967, pp. 159–197.
• 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

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.