Lampas with griffins in roundels, from the Reliquary of Saint Librada in Siguenza Cathedral (1100–50): Art, History and Details

Lampas with griffins in roundels, from the Reliquary of Saint Librada in Siguenza Cathedral (1100–50) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Mirrored griffins with gold heads dominate these roundels, as they turn their heads unnaturally to stare at each other across their wing tips. The pairs of dragons in the framing border, however, have lost their artistic impact since the green silk thread has disintegrated into brown specks. Luxury silks woven in Islamic Spain were worn by Christian kings throughout Europe. Their patterns also influenced designs in Jewish synagogues and were the standard aesthetic of the elaborately decorated walls in the Muslim Alhambra palace in Granada. This silk is from the reliquary of Saint Librada in Siguenza Cathedral, northeast of Madrid.

Object facts

• Title: Lampas with griffins in roundels, from the Reliquary of Saint Librada in Siguenza Cathedral
• Date: 1100–50
• Culture: Spain, Almeria
• Type: Textile
• Technique: Silk and gold thread: lampas and plain-weave variant
• Dimensions: Overall: 52.7 x 63.5 cm (20 3/4 x 25 in.); Mounted: 61 x 71.1 cm (24 x 28 in.)
• Collection: T - Islamic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1952.152

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• New York University. Spanish Medieval Art. Loan Exhibition in Honor of Dr. Walter W.S. Cook. 1954.
• Shepherd, Dorothy G. "Two Hispano-Islamic Silks in Diasper Weave." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 42, no. 1 (1955): 6-10.
• Shepherd, Dorothy G. "A Dated Hispano-Islamic Silk." Ars Orientalis 2 (1957): 373-82.

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.