The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Embroidered border and field of animals in large roundels

1000s–1100s

Iraq, probably Baghdad, Seljuk period

plain weave: silk warp and cotton weft (mulham): plain weave; silk and gold thread: embroidery, couched, split, running, and outline stitches:
Overall: 26.7 x 12.4 cm (10 1/2 x 4 7/8 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1952.257
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Another fragment of this textile, lavishly embroidered with gilt-metal and silk thread on mulham, is now in the collection of the MFA Boston, 37.103.

Description

This fragment preserves part of the main field and border of a large textile. At the top is a small segment of a roundel frame with fragments of a pair of confronted animals; at the lower right is part of a smaller roundel in which only the hind part of a lion or griffin remains. Below the roundels is a section of a wide border with a large bird wearing Sasanian flying ribbons about its neck. It is framed in a roundel formed by the tendrils of a scrolling vine. A narrow band at the bottom has a badly garbled Kufic inscription, which is upside down in relation to the rest of the pattern. Only the word "Allah" repeated twice can be deciphered.
  • Jacques Matossian, Cairo, Egypt
    ?–1952
    (Mme Paul [Marguerite] Mallon [d. 1977], Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1952–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lamm, C. J. Cotton in Mediaeval Textiles of the Near East. Paris: P. Geuthner, 1937. p. 126
    Wiet, Gaston. “Tissus Brodes Mesopotamiens.” Ars Islamica 4 (1937): 54–63. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 43–62, fig. 2
    Niño, Felipa. Las mitras de Roda. Madrid: Instituto Diego Velazquez, 1941. p. 143
    Neils, Jenifer. "The Twain Shall Meet." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, no. 6 (1985): 326-–359. Mentioned: no. 61 25159914
    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. 158, fig. 4.30; Mentioned: P. 156
  • The Twain Shall Meet. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 30, 1985-January 5, 1986).
  • {{cite web|title=Embroidered border and field of animals in large roundels|url=false|author=|year=1000s–1100s|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1952.257