The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Fragment with confronted animal medallions and kufic bands

1480–1649 (radiocarbon date, 95% probability)

Iran

Silk: diasper, tabby weave
Overall: 39.6 x 45.4 cm (15 9/16 x 17 7/8 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1950.84
Location: Not on view

Description

The fragment preserves a wide central band flanked by narrower inscription bands. The narrower bands contain, on a dark blue background, a continuous inscription in elaborate Kufic, the ivory-colored lettering oriented at right angles to the warp. On the wider ivory panel there appear ovals enclosing a frieze of running animals within which are hexagons enclosing stars. The ovals alternate vertically with cartouches containing an inscription in simple Kufic, the design appearing in blue, pink, and ivory.
  • ?–1950
    (Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1950–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Shepherd, Dorothy. "A Persian Textile of the Buyid Period." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 41, no. 3 (March 1954): 52–55. Reproduced: p. 52; Mentioned: p. 55 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. 677 archive.org
    Persian Art Before And After the Mongol Conquest.: [Exhibition] April 9-May 17, 1959. the University of Michigan, Museum of Art, Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, Museum of Art, 1959. Mentioned: cat. no. 109, p. 40; Reproduced: p. 66
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 215 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. 215 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. 272 archive.org
    Blair, Sheila S., Jonathan M. Bloom, and Anne E. Wardwell. "Reevaluating the Date of the "Buyid" Silks by Epigraphic and Radiocarbon Analysis." Ars Orientalis 22 (1992): 1–41. Reproduced: p. 30; Mentioned: p. 15 www.jstor.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: p. 154, fig. 4a; Mentioned: pp. 154–155
  • Persian Art Before and After the Mongol Conquest. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI (organizer) (April 9-May 17, 1959).
  • {{cite web|title=Fragment with confronted animal medallions and kufic bands|url=false|author=|year=1480–1649 (radiocarbon date, 95% probability)|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1950.84