The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 13, 2026

A fan-shaped silk and gold garment features repeating patterns of circular medallions enclosing stylized script against a dark blue ground. Large gold lotus blossoms are interspersed among dense scrolling vines and smaller floral motifs that shimmer across the fabric. The wide, flared shape is constructed from several panels with visible seams angling toward the curved neckline. A dense gold pattern of foliage and vines is silhouetted against the indigo silk background.

Mantle for a Statue of the Virgin with Lotus Blossoms and Medallions

c. 1430

Egypt and Spain, Egypt

Silk and gilt-metal thread: lampas weave
Overall: 70.5 x 111.2 cm (27 3/4 x 43 3/4 in.); Mounted: 78.1 x 119.4 cm (30 3/4 x 47 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1939.40
Location: Not on view

Description

This costly royal silk with extensive gold thread was woven in Egypt and gifted or exported to Spain, where it was pieced into this mantle for a statue of the Virgin, probably to be worn during festivals and processions.

The sturdy silk brocade foundation cloth was also woven with a lighter weight silk damask with a repeating mirror image. Therefore, the Arabic inscription in the medallions reads both forward and backward: Glory to our master, the sultan, the king. The inscribed lobed roundels say The sultan, the king.
  • according to Mr. Elsberg, the mantle came from a church near Valencia, Spain.
    ?–1939
    (H. [Herman] A. Elsberg [1869–1938], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1939–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Underhill, Gertrude. "Textiles from the H. A. Elsberg Collection." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 26, no. 9 (November 1939): 143–146. Mentioned: pp. 144–145; Reproduced: p. 142 25138043
    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. New York: E. Weyhe, 1944. Reproduced: pl. 66, no. 291
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 715 archive.org
    Schmidt, Heinrich Jakob. Alte Seidenstoffe; ein Handbuch für Sammler und Liebhaber. Braunschweig: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1958. Reproduced: fig. 137
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 214 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. 214 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. 270 archive.org
    Atıl, Esin. Renaissance of Islam: Art of the Mamluks. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981. no. 116, pp. 232–233
    Wardwell, Anne E. "Flight of the Phoenix: Crosscurrents in Late Thirteenth- to Fourteenth-Century Silk Patterns and Motifs." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 74, no. 1 (January 1987): 2–35. p. 22, fig. 27 25159970
    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. pp. 3–22
    “A Walking Tour: The entire new museum wing by wing, with curators calling out a few favorite works in the collection.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 54, no. 1 (January/February 2014): 8–33. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 27 archive.org
    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: pp. 240, 270–271, fig. 7.31; Mentioned: p. 270
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 29
    Flood, Finbarr Barry, and Gülru Necipoğlu, eds. A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell, 2017. Reproduced: p. 987
    Peinado, Laura Rodriguez. "Los Textiles Como Objetos de Lujo y de Intercambio." In Las Artes en Al-Andalus y Egipto: Contextos e Intercambios. Susana Calvo Capilla, ed. Madrid: Ediciones de La Ergástula, 2017. Mentioned: p. 199; Reproduced: p. 200
    Akin, Esra. Muthanna / History, Theory, and Aesthetics. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2020. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 138, fig. 5.8
    Clarke, Sarah E. Braddock, and Ryoko Yamanaka Kondo. Byzantine Silk on the Silk Roads: Journeys between East and West, Past and Present. London; New York: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2022. Reproduced: p. 92, fig. 7.5
  • Al-Andalus: Art from Islamic Spain (Islamic art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 29, 2019-October 25, 2020).
    Luxuriance: Silks from Islamic Lands, 1250–1900. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 14, 2013-June 23, 2014).
    Gallery 207 textile rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 20, 2002-May 5, 2004).
    Textiles from Egypt, Syria and Spain: 7th through 15th centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 26-June 6, 1991).
    Renaissance of Islam: Art of the Mamluks. National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, DC (May 14-July 19, 1981); Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN (August 15-October 11, 1981); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (November 7, 1981-January 3, 1982); The Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH (February 6-April 4, 1982); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (April 24-June 20, 1982); Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ (January 8-March 6, 1983); Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT (April 2-May 29, 1983).
    2000 Years of Silk Weaving. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 18-April 16, 1944).
  • {{cite web|title=Mantle for a Statue of the Virgin with Lotus Blossoms and Medallions|url=false|author=|year=c. 1430|access-date=13 May 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1939.40