The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 24, 2024

Velvet with Pomegranate Pattern

Velvet with Pomegranate Pattern

1450–1500
Location: not on view

Description

This extravagant Italian velvet with three heights of lush crimson pile is lavishly embellished with gold-thread loops. Large pomegranate patterns such as this were fashionable in Europe for more than a century, about 1420 to 1550, and were often featured in paintings and in large wall tapestries. Variations occurred in pattern details, pile height, and gold thread. Since pomegranates symbolized eternity, fertility, and resurrection, these velvets were often used in Roman Catholic churches. This pomegranate pattern inspired the cope, or cloak, worn by the Archbishop of Canterbury when he officiated the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011.
  • (Loewi-Robertson, Inc., Los Angeles).
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 104 archive.org
    McWilliams, Mary, “Ambitious Decoration” Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 36 no. 03, March 1996 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 5 archive.org
  • Renaissance Textiles (Textile Rotation) - Gallery 115. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 14, 2012-December 10, 2013).
    Draped in Splendor: Renaissance Textiles and the Church. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 7, 2003-September 26, 2004).
    Gallery 216 installation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 1991).
  • {{cite web|title=Velvet with Pomegranate Pattern|url=false|author=|year=1450–1500|access-date=24 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1973.20