Textile Fragment with Double-Headed Eagles

Standing within scalloped medallions, double-headed eagles with wings spread wide clutch roaring lions in their claws. The eagles’ bodies, wings, and tails display intricate patterns, and crescent-shaped pendants hang from the eagles’ beaks. This silk fragment was once part of a larger fabric dyed with kermes—an insect-based dye—and an unidentified green dye. While the textile’s bright red background has faded to orange, the contrast of the green and red weft threads would have made the original fabric incredibly vibrant.

This textile was found in the tomb of Bernat Calbó, a bishop of Vic, Spain. Upon his death in 1243, Calbó was buried with several luxury textiles that formed either his grave wrappings or ecclesiastical vestments. The medieval origins of this double-headed eagle textile remain shrouded despite numerous scholarly attempts to determine its provenance. Several different regions have been proposed as the textile’s place of production, from Byzantium, to Persia, to Sicily, to al-Andalus. While no consensus has been reached, most scholars believe the fabric to be a production of either a Byzantine or Andalusi workshop. Advocates of a Byzantine provenance cite the use of the double-headed eagle as an imperial motif, while proponents of an Andalusi or Islamic origin explain that such motifs were not limited to Byzantine artworks but were also represented in various media throughout Islamic Spain. Furthermore, images of eagles gripping lions in their talons are known to have been carved in stone at Madinat al-Zahra, the palatial city of the caliphate of Córdoba. That such a seemingly singular image was evidently found in multiple parts of the medieval Mediterranean speaks to the presence of a shared artistic vocabulary. While one may find it frustrating that the textile’s point of origin cannot be firmly defined, the very fact that the double-headed eagle textile cannot be associated with a sole locality is indicative of a shared artistic taste in the wider medieval world, as well as a complex network of cultural trade.

Despite the debate surrounding its place of production, most scholars agree that the textile was made in either the 11th or the 12th century—that is, up to 250 years before Calbó’s death in 1243. Given its age and use as a vestment (Gudiol i Cunill claims the fabric formed Calbó’s chasuble), we can imagine that the double-headed eagle textile was a highly prized object valued for its costly materials, level of craftsmanship, and antiquity. Regardless of whether it was produced in Byzantium or al-Andalus, the textile’s association with foreign lands would have increased its status as a desired luxury object in its new Catalonian context. Although not proven by any surviving textual sources, tradition holds that Calbó received the textile either as a gift or as payment for participating in the conquest of Valencia in 1238 alongside James I of Aragon. Muslim-controlled Valencia was a major port city connected to both regional and wide-reaching trade networks within the Mediterranean. Whether the double-headed eagle textile was produced in al-Andalus or elsewhere, it is entirely possible that the fabric could have passed through a port city such as Valencia or Barcelona.

In December 1888, Calbó’s tomb was opened for the first time in centuries. Because he was canonized, the luxurious silks that touched Calbó’s body were considered sacred contact relics. Writing for the Congrés d'historia de la corona d'Arago in 1913, Josep Gudiol i Cunill—who was both an ordained priest and curator of the nascent Museu Episcopal de Vic—lamented that due to their sacred status, the silk fabrics were cut into pieces and distributed to both clergy and members of the public. The Episcopal Museum was later able to re-acquire some of these fragments. At least one fragment later resurfaced in the collection of Francisco Miquel y Badía (1840-1899), the prominent art critic and collector of Spanish art. The double-headed eagle textile was published for the first time in 1900 when it was featured in Miquel y Badía’s catalogue raisonné. The Met’s textile is one of at least ten fragments of the double-headed eagle fabric known to survive into the 20th century. While the Met’s fragment is relatively small, the pattern repeat is discernable in larger fragments in Spanish, Swiss, and American collections. In particular, the large fragments in the Cleveland Museum of Art allow for a better understanding of the fabric’s original composition and scale.

Select References:

José Pasco. Catalogue de la collection de tissus anciens de D. Fransciso Miquel y Badia. Barcelona, 1900, pl. XVI.

Josep Gudiol i Cunill. "Lo sepulcre de Sant Bernat Calvó, Bisbe de Vich." In I Congrés d'historia de la corona d'Arago, dedicat al rey en Jaume I y a la seua época, Volume II, pp. 964-77. Barcelona, 1913.

Florence Lewis May. Silk Textiles of Spain: Eighth to Fifteenth Century. New York: Hispanic Society of America, 1957, pp. 46-51.

Rosa Maria Martín i Ros. "Teixits." In Cataluyna romanica XXII, Museu Episcopal de Vic, Museu Diocesa i Comarcal de Solsona. Barcelona, 1986, p. 278-9.

Louise W Mackie.　Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century. New Haven: Yale University, 2015, pp. 177-80.

Catalogue entry by Amelia Roché Hyde, Research Assistant, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, September 2021

From tomb of St. Bernard Calvo, Bishop of Vich, Catalonia, Spain, from 1233-1243. ; Miguel Y Badía, Madrid; [ Paul Drey Gallery, New York (sold 1941)]

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Glory of Byzantium," March 11–July 6, 1997.

New York. The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Spain, 1000–1200: Art at the Frontiers of Faith," August 30, 2021–January 30, 2022.

Weibel, Adele Coulin. "The Figured Textiles of Europe and the Near East." In Two Thousand Years of Textiles. New York: Pantheon Books, 1952. no. 60, p. 94, fig. 60.

Spanish Medieval Art: A Loan Exhibition in Honor of Dr. Walter W.S. Cook. New York: Institute of Fine Arts Alumni Association, 1954. no. 66, (mentioned in cat. entry).

Otavsky, Karel, Mechthild Flury-Lemberg, and Birgitta Schmedding. Abegg-Stiftung Bern in Riggisberg. Vol. 2. Bern, Switzerland: P. Haupt, 1973. pl. 17 (mentioned in cat. entry).

Martín i Ros, Rosa M. "Els Teixits." In Catalunya romànica: Volume 3, Osona II. Barcelona: Fundació Enciclopèdia Catalana, 1986. p. 724.

Otavsky, Karel, and Muhammad abbas Muhammad Salim, ed. Mittelalterliche Textilien 1: Ägypten, Persien und Mesopotamien, Spanien und Nordafrika. Riggisberg: Abegg-Stiftung, 1995. p. 165.

Evans, Helen C., and William D. Wixom, ed. The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843–1261. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997. no. 270, pp. 413–14.

Martín i Ros, Rosa M. "La dispersió dels teixits medieval: un patrimoni trossejat." Lambard: estudis d'art medieval 12 (1999-2000). pp. 168–9.

Carbonell Basté, Sílvia, ed. Colors del Mediterrani: colorants naturals per a un téxtil sostenible?. Terrassa, Spain: Centre de Documentació i Museu Textil, 2010. p. 104 n. 2.

Saladrigas Cheng, Sílvia. "L’estudi tècnic dels teixits com a recurs en la recerca històrica. El cas dels teixits medievals del Centre de Documentació i Museu Tèxtil. Terrassa." Barcelona, 2017. p. 108.

Perratore, Julia. "Spain 1000-1200: Art at the Frontiers of Faith." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n. s., 79, no. 2 (Fall 2021). p. 29, fig. 37.