Tomb Cover (1640–1950 (radiocarbon date, 95% probability)): Art, History and Details

Tomb Cover (1640–1950 (radiocarbon date, 95% probability)) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This complete loom piece was woven to cover a human corpse: at the top, a circle to cover the head; below, a long tapering shape for the body. The only decoration on the dark brown ground consists of Kufic inscriptions reserved in beige on bands. The text which was undoubtedly composed for the decoration of a funeral pall gives the name of the deceased in the circle around the top. Other inscriptions refer to the part of the body over which the decoration lies.

Object facts

• Title: Tomb Cover
• Date: 1640–1950 (radiocarbon date, 95% probability)
• Culture: Iraq or Iran, in the style of the Buyid period (945–1055)
• Type: Textile
• Technique: compound tabby; silk
• Dimensions: Overall: 210.2 x 102.5 cm (82 3/4 x 40 3/8 in.)
• Collection: T - Islamic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1954.780

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.

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.