Lampas with floral medallions in ogival lattice (1550–75): Art, History and Details

Lampas with floral medallions in ogival lattice (1550–75) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This signature Turkish brocaded silk has a classic elegance associated with the artistic height of the 1500s. The prominent golden medallions and ogival (curved) lattice contrast with exceptionally delicate Turkish flowers—tulips, roses, carnations, and hyacinths—which all grow on a single vine. The symmetrical design and two complete medallions with lattices across the width are typical Turkish features of fine brocaded silks. Its original function is uncertain. Possibly it was intended for an imperial kaftan, a garment consisting of a long gown with sleeves reaching below the hands, examples of which are preserved in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, the imperial center of the vast and wealthy Ottoman Empire.

Object facts

• Title: Lampas with floral medallions in ogival lattice
• Date: 1550–75
• Culture: Turkey, Istanbul or Bursa
• Type: Textile
• Technique: Silk and gilt-metal thread; lampas
• Dimensions: Overall: 109.2 x 66.8 cm (43 x 26 5/16 in.); Mounted: 116.2 x 74.9 cm (45 3/4 x 29 1/2 in.)
• Collection: T - Islamic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1946.419

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.
• Franklin, David. The Cleveland Museum of Art. London: Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd., 2012.
• Mackie, Louise W. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century. Cleveland; New Haven: Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2015.

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.