Samite with roundels of rosettes (700s-800s): Art, History and Details

Samite with roundels of rosettes (700s-800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This is one of a large number of silks woven with geometric designs that have traditionally been attributed to Sogdiana. However, the untwisted warps and light weight of the silk indicate that it was woven farther east in Central Asia where Sogdian influence was strong. Similar geometric patterns occur on clothing depicted in paintings found in the Khotan oasis. That region maintained close cultural and economic ties with Sogdiana. Whether this silk was woven in the Khotan oasis or elsewhere in Central Asia is not known.

Object facts

• Title: Samite with roundels of rosettes
• Date: 700s-800s
• Culture: Iran
• Type: Textile
• Technique: samite: silk
• Dimensions: Overall: 17.7 x 17.7 cm (6 15/16 x 6 15/16 in.)
• Collection: Textiles
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1950.514

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Müller-Christensen, Sigrid, Mechthild Flury-Lemberg, and Karen Stolleis. Documenta textilia: Festschrift für Sigrid Müller-Christensen. München: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1981.
• Shepherd, Dorothy G. 1981. “Zandaniji Revisited.” Documenta Textilia / Hrsg. Von Mechthild Flury-Lemberg Und Karen Stolleis 105-122.
• Watt, James C. Y., Anne E. Wardwell, and Morris Rossabi. When silk was gold: Central Asian and Chinese textiles. 1997.

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.