Cloth of Gold: Winged Lions and Griffins
Cloth of Gold: Winged Lions and Griffins, Central Asia, mid-13th century c. 1240 - 1260
Lampas; silk and gold thread Central Asia, mid-1200s The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1989.50 (Cat. no. 35) This magnificent cloth of gold is representative of the finest products of Mongol imperial workshops. Such textiles were not only used by the emperor and his court, but were sent as imperial gifts to important persons or institutions. Judging by its design, the textile was woven in a city, such as Besh Baliq, where craftsmen from northern China and the eastern Iranian world were working together with local artisans. The paired lions enclosed in roundels and paired griffins in the spaces between are eastern Iranian motifs. The decorative elements (the cloud ornaments on the lions' wings and the cloud terminals of the vines filling the backgrounds of the roundels) were inspired by Chinese models. These, however, have been taken out of context to create a design that is uniquely Central Asian. 
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