The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of February 5, 2023

Fragment with musicians

1200s

Spain, probably Almeria

Silk and gold thread: lampas weave with areas of double cloth

Overall: 16.8 x 14 cm (6 5/8 x 5 1/2 in.); Mounted: 27.3 x 24.1 cm (10 3/4 x 9 1/2 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1932.137

Location

not on view

Description

The repeating pattern features female musicians playing tambourines. They wear long blue and blue-green robes in alternate rows. A lamp hangs between them, suggesting an evening setting. Traces of their black hair peek out from under red headdresses.

This textile, along with several other fragments, was found within the pages of a Christian manuscript in the Cathedral of Vich, near Barcelona in northeastern Spain.

Provenance
said to have come from binding of 13th century manuscript at Vich
?-1932
(H. A. Elsberg, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1932-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), and Maurice Sven Dimand. A Handbook of Muhammadan Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1944. fig. 183
Los Angeles County Museum. 2000 Years of Silk Weaving: An Exhibition Sponsored by the Los Angeles County Museum in Collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Arts. 1944. pl. 34, catalog number 123
Weibel, Adèle Coulin. Two Thousand Years of Textiles; The Figured Textiles of Europe and the Near East. New York: Published for the Detroit Institute of Arts [by] Pantheon Books, 1952. catalog number 75
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 125 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 218 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 218 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 275 archive.org
Indictor, Norman, Robert J. (Robert John) Koestler, Christopher Blair, and Anne E. Wardwell. “The Evaluation of Metal Wrappings from Medieval Textiles Using Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive x-Ray Spectrometry.” Textile History 19 (1). 1988. p. 3-22
Mackie, Louise W. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century. Cleveland; New Haven: Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2015. Reproduced: P. 185, fig. 5.16; Mentioned: P. 184-185
Exhibition history

Medieval Art. Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (January 3-28, 1952).

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

2000 Years of Silk Weaving. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 18-April 16, 1944).

Al-Andalus: Art from Islamic Spain (Islamic art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 29, 2019-October 25, 2020).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1932.137