Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Luxury Cloth: Cushion Cover
Not on view
Across the Kongo region and along the Loango coast, textile production was a complex process: climbing trees; choosing and preparing leaves; combing and thinning out threads; weaving the cloth; applying gray, black, and red dyes made from chalk, clay, charcoal, or redwood; and cutting and combing the pile to enhance and elaborate the texture. Textile manufacture and distribution were closely associated with the wielding of power, whether by royal administrators, chiefs, household heads, religious specialists, or traders. Europeans immediately learned that textiles played a central role in the region’s economy and commercial networks.
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