Fragment of a Cover or Blanket with Ornamental Square Featuring Flowers and Animals

Panel


Tapestry panels like this colorful example are known in large numbers, almost always with some loop-pile cloth still partly attached. The complete piece would have been decorated with two or four such tapestry-woven panels in addition to end stripes (see MMA 90.5.899) It must have been used as a bed cover or blanket since loop-pile is unusually long and thick, making the original piece quite heavy and warm.

The panel is woven into the cloth in dark purple, yellow, green, and red wool and undyed linen. The central frame is filled with a large lotus blossom. The corners contain dark purple leonine and canine creatures; spaces in between carry flower baskets. The design is executed completely in a tapestry of color surfaces; only the animals have a few inner details made with a flying shuttle. All motifs are executed in a stylized manner indicating that the present example belongs among the later rather than earlier versions of the design. Although the original motifs may have had some specific meaning, here and in analogous examples the function is only as appealing, colorful decoration.

Circumstantially, these textiles have been identified as coming from Akhmim and Saqqara (see MMA 90.5.899, cat. 38 in this volume). Since the present panel was acquired from Theodor Graf in Vienna, known for his holding of Saqqara and Akhmim textiles, it is most likely that it was also found in one of these sites.

Anna Gonosova in [Friedman 1989]

[ Theodor Graf, Vienna, Austria, by 1887–89; sold to R.W. Eltzner for MMA]

Providence, RI. Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. "Beyond the Pharaohs: Egypt and the Copts in the 2nd to 7th Centuries A.D.," February 10, 1989–April 16, 1989, no. 45.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Textiles of Late Antiquity," December 14, 1995–April 7, 1996, no. 53.

Friedman, Florence D. "Egypt and the Copts in the 2nd to 7th Centuries AD." In Beyond the Pharaohs. Providence, R.I.: Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, 1989. no. 45, p. 136, ill. (b/w).

Stauffer, Annmarie. Textiles of Late Antiquity. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995. no. 53, p. 47, ill. (b/w).