Fragment from a Garment (smaller fragment, outer layer) (900s): Art, History and Details

Fragment from a Garment (smaller fragment, outer layer) (900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This textile preserves part of an overall design of large, radiating floral motifs arranged in staggered, horizontal rows. In the spaces between are pairs of flying cranes and cloud scrolls that are common motifs in Liao paintings and decorative arts. The loose structure of the pattern and the naturalism of the motifs represent the final evolution of a pattern that had originated in the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907).

Object facts

• Title: Fragment from a Garment (smaller fragment, outer layer)
• Date: 900s
• Culture: China, Liao dynasty (907-1125), 10th century
• Type: Textile
• Technique: weft-faced compound twill, silk
• Dimensions: Overall: 35.9 x 46 cm (14 1/8 x 18 1/8 in.); Mounted: 48.9 x 58.4 cm (19 1/4 x 23 in.)
• Collection: Textiles
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1992.112.2.a

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Watt, James C. Y., Anne E. Wardwell, and Morris Rossabi. When silk was gold: Central Asian and Chinese textiles. 1997.
• Kwok, Zoe S. The Eternal Feast: Banqueting in Chinese Art from the 10th to the 14th Century. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Art Museum, 2019.

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.