The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 14, 2025

Fragment

900s–1000s

Byzantium

Silk and gold: compound twill, brocaded
Overall: 46.4 x 54.6 cm (18 1/4 x 21 1/2 in.); Mounted: 61.9 x 67 x 2.5 cm (24 3/8 x 26 3/8 x 1 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1950.2
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The entire pattern is in gold thread, except for such minor details as claws and eyes which are in golden tan silk on a rose-red ground.

Description

The design of this textile offers an interesting iconographic puzzle. The double-headed eagle was a common motif in the art of the Near East in ancient times and from there seems to have found its way into Byzantine and European art. The animal tail ending in an animal's head is also found in Near Eastern art and is particularly noted in textiles of the Seljuk period (1000s–1100s) in Persia. However, the division of the roundel frame into two halves ending in animal heads is not known in the art of the Near East nor is the continuous knot motif which occurs just behind the animal head of the frames. Both of these motifs are familiar in the art of the Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, and Scandinavian peoples of Europe.
  • St. Peter's Church, Salzburg, Austria
    ?–1950
    (Mme Paul [Marguerite] Mallon [d. 1977], Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1950–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Shepherd, Dorothy. "A Medieval Brocade." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 37, no. 9 (November 1950): 195-196 Mentioned: p. 196; Reproduced: p. 199 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. 687 archive.org
    Flury-Lemberg, Mechthild and Brigitta Schmedding. Abegg-Stiftung Bern a Riggisberg = Abegg-Stiftung Bern in Riggisberg. II Textilien. Bern: Paul Haupt, 1973. tafel 12
    Bagnoli, Martina. Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2010. cat. no. 68
    Canby, Sheila R, Deniz Beyazit, Martina Rugiadi, and A. C. S Peacock. Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016. p. 239, cat. no 150
    Peter, Michael. Gewebtes gold: eine kleine geschichte der metallfadenweberei von der antike bis um 1800. Riggisberg: Abegg-Stiftung, 2022. pp. 34–35
  • Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 17, 2010-January 17, 2011); The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD (February 13-May 15, 2011).
    St. Peter in Salzburg. Dommusuems zu Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria (May 15-October 1982).
    Medieval Art. Winnipeg Art Gallery, Manitoba, Canada (January 3-28, 1952).
  • {{cite web|title=Fragment|url=false|author=|year=900s–1000s|access-date=14 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1950.2