Rare Silk Tunic Fragment with Ornamental Sleeve Band (400s-500s): Art, History and Details

Rare Silk Tunic Fragment with Ornamental Sleeve Band (400s-500s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This is the only known remnant of a silk tunic among thousands of tapestry-woven decorations that have survived in the dry Egyptian climate. Expensive imported silk, instead of indigenous linen or wool, formed the entire luxurious ground of the tunic, visible along the sides of the fragment. Shiny silk thread also formed some of the details, along with thicker linen thread, on the unusually brilliant purple wool ground. Two males wearing a short garment (chiton) draped over one shoulder appear under vines emanating from baskets. One holds a club with a rabbit beside him; the other bears a staff and a leaf.

Object facts

• Title: Rare Silk Tunic Fragment with Ornamental Sleeve Band
• Date: 400s-500s
• Culture: Egypt, Byzantine period
• Type: Textile
• Technique: plain weave: silk; tapestry weave with supplementary weft wrapping; undyed linen, dyed wool, silk
• Dimensions: Overall: 27 x 7 cm (10 5/8 x 2 3/4 in.); Mounted: 33 x 12.1 cm (13 x 4 3/4 in.)
• Collection: T - Coptic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1982.77

Collection credit

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund

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.