The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of February 6, 2023

Fragment with Lion Strangler from a Dalmatic of Saint Bernard Calvo

1200–1243

Spain, Almeria

Silk and gold thread: lampas, taqueté, and plain-weave variant

Overall: 43.8 x 39.7 cm (17 1/4 x 15 5/8 in.); Mounted: 53 x 49.8 cm (20 7/8 x 19 5/8 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1950.146

Location

not on view

Description

Within the elaborate roundel, a bearded man with a belted tunic strangles a lion in each hand. Gold thread shimmers on their heads and his hands. In the inscription band across the top, an Arabic word has been written with mirror-image symmetry. It can be read as al-yumn, primarily translated as prosperity.

The central motif of this renowned silk is a pre- Islamic Persian symbol of royal power. Both Muslims and Christians throughout the Iberian Peninsula admired such textiles. Members of the Catholic clergy incorporated it into a dalmatic—a long ceremonial tunic. It was found in the late 1800s in the tomb of Saint Bernard Calvo, Bishop of Vich (1180–1243).

Inscriptions

Inscription

the inscription (incorrectly written) appears to read "al-'amir" (command, i.e. authority) [alternately retrograde and vice versa].

Provenance
from tomb of St. Bernard Calvo, Bishop of Vich, who died in 1243; this fragment from one of vestments found in tomb at the Cathedral of Vich when it was opened at the end of the 19th century
?-1950
(Paul O. Berliz, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1950-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Shepherd, Dorothy G. "A Twelfth-Century Hispano-Islamic Silk." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 38, no. 3 (1951): 59-62. p. 59-62 www.jstor.org
Shepherd, Dorothy G. "A Dated Hispano-Islamic Silk." Ars Orientalis 2 (1957): 373-82. p. 373-82 www.jstor.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 119 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
Brett, Michael, and Werner Forman. The Moors: Islam in the West. London: Orbis Pub, 1980. p. 21
Ettinghausen, Richard, Oleg Grabar, and Sheila Blair. The art and architecture of Islam, 650-1250. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England; New York: Penguin Books, 1987. p. 161, fig. 140
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 175, fig. 5.6; Mentioned: P. 174, 177
Akin, Esra. Muthanna / History, Theory, and Aesthetics. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2020. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 139, fig. 5.9
Exhibition history

Gallery 207 textile rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 19, 2001-June 3, 2002).

35th Anniversary Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 20-September 30, 1951).

Islamic Gallery 207 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 19, 2001-June 3, 2002).

Islamic art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 16, 2013-December 15, 2014).

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/1950.146