Mantle for a Statue of the Virgin with Lotus Blossoms and Medallions (c. 1430): Art, History and Details

Mantle for a Statue of the Virgin with Lotus Blossoms and Medallions (c. 1430) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This costly royal silk with extensive gold thread was woven in Egypt and gifted or exported to Spain, where it was pieced into this mantle for a statue of the Virgin, probably to be worn during festivals and processions. The sturdy silk brocade foundation cloth was also woven with a lighter weight silk damask with a repeating mirror image. Therefore, the Arabic inscription in the medallions reads both forward and backward: Glory to our master, the sultan, the king. The inscribed lobed roundels say The sultan, the king.

Object facts

• Title: Mantle for a Statue of the Virgin with Lotus Blossoms and Medallions
• Date: c. 1430
• Culture: Egypt and Spain; Egypt
• Type: Textile
• Technique: Silk and gilt-metal thread: lampas weave
• Dimensions: Overall: 70.5 x 111.2 cm (27 3/4 x 43 3/4 in.); Mounted: 78.1 x 119.4 cm (30 3/4 x 47 in.)
• Collection: T - Islamic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1939.40

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Underhill, Gertrude. "Textiles from the H. A. Elsberg Collection." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 26, no. 9 (November 1939): 143–146.
• Los Angeles County Museum. 2000 Years of Silk Weaving: An Exhibition Sponsored by the Los Angeles County Museum in Collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Arts. New York: E. Weyhe, 1944.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

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.