The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Fragment with lions and griffins in combat

1459–1669 (radiocarbon date, 95% probability)

Iran ?, in the style of the Buyid period

(945–1055)
Silk: lampas weave
Overall: 50.8 x 71.1 cm (20 x 28 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1968.221
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

A Kufic inscription is in the rectangular frame between each rondel.

Description

Against a diaper-patterned background are roundels each containing a Tree of Life flanked by a lion and dragon in combat, birds, and griffins. The rondels are framed with a frieze of running animals. Twelve-sided figures in the interspaces enclose diamonds with pairs of confronted birds and animals flanking another Tree of Life.
  • Teheran Market
    ?-1968
    (Nassiri Amini, Tehran, Iran, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1968-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • “Annual Report for 1968.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 56, no. 6, 1969, pp. 209–248. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 225 www.jstor.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. 31; 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. 155, fig. 4f; Mentioned: P. 154-155
  • Year in Review for 1968. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 29-March 9, 1969).
  • {{cite web|title=Fragment with lions and griffins in combat|url=false|author=|year=1459–1669 (radiocarbon date, 95% probability)|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1968.221