Two bands with a scroll of heart-shaped leaves and two birds are paired with a large roundel. The medallion encloses a beautiful interlace within an eight-pointed star. Crosses circumscribed by circles fill the spaces between the star and the running wave border. The complex patterning is created using a decorative technique known as the flying shuttle or flying needle. Shuttles are devices in a loom for passing the horizontal (weft) threads through the spaces between the vertical (warp) threads. In this technique, the weaver made additional passes of the shuttle to create lines of ornament that do not follow the regular pattern of the weave. As seen here, the threads appear to lie on top of the weave.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Fragment with an Interlace Medallion and Bands
Date:3rd–6th century
Geography:Made in Egypt
Medium:Wool, linen; plain weave, tapestry weave
Dimensions:Max. H. 30 11/16 in. (78 cm) Max. W. 26 3/4 in. (68 cm)
Classification:Textiles
Credit Line:Purchase by subscription, 1889
Object Number:89.18.151
Textile Fragment
Textiles of this type were used for many purposes, such as clothing, curtains, covers, bed sheets, and eventually shrouds for the dead. From a technical point of view, fragments of plain linen cloths with ornaments in tapestry weave, like this eaxmple, are the largest group of survivng textiles. The majority of the ornaments are variously shaped panels and horizontal and vertical bands woven in purple wool and linen. They are decorated internally with foliate and geometric patterns executed with a flying shuttle. Although the origin of the present piece is not known, circumstantial evidence points to Upper Egypt, specifically Akhmim, as its possible provenance. It was acquired from Theodore Graf, who is known to have had many Akhmim textiles. Related fragments in other collections said to have come from this site exhibit many of the same decorative patterns (e.g. MMA 89.18.203, also from the Graf collection). The similarities between them are such that they must be considered works from the same place.
Comparative material from other media, especially painting, helps with the broad dating of this group of textiles. Similar large roundels are painted on late 3rd-century mummy wrappings from Antinoopolis and can be found in wall paintings of the late 3rd and 4th centuries. The complexity of the interlace in the roundel of this piece and in the tapestry ornaments of the related group suggests a date not earlier than the middle of the 4th century for their manufacture.
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. 181.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Late Antique Taste and Clasical Themes," November 1, 2008–November 1, 2009.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Classical Imagery in the Early Byzantine Period," November 18, 2008–January 18, 2009.
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. 181, p. 267, ill. (b/w).
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