The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 25, 2025

Cloth of gold with felines and eagles

1225–75
Silk and gold thread: lampas
Overall: 170.5 x 109 cm (67 1/8 x 42 15/16 in.); Mounted: 179.1 x 118.7 x 13.3 cm (70 1/2 x 46 3/4 x 5 1/4 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1990.2
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Mongol cloths of gold, called nasji, incorporate Iranian, Central Asian, and Chinese features, reflecting the effects of gift exchanges and international commerce.

Description

Mongol taste for luxury was equated with gold, symbol of imperial authority, power, and legitimacy. This splendid cloth of gold-exceptionally large and luxurious-may have enriched the interior of a palace or a majestic tent. The golden pattern, although tarnished on the faded red silk ground, features scalloped medallions with felines whose long tails terminate in dragons’ heads amid elegant floral vines. Double-headed eagles form interstitial motifs on the floral ground. A radiant gold-on-gold band of pseudo-Arabic script enriches the top, woven with gold strips wrapped around a silk core on a ground of flat strips of gold, immediately beneath the pattern testing area.
  • 1988?-1990
    (Thupten Zong Lo, Hong Kong, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1990-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Museum, 1991. p. 47 archive.org
    Wardwell, Anne E. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (1991): 63-147. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 123 www.jstor.org
    "Exhibitions, Golden Lampas." HALI; the international journal of Oriental carpets and textiles 13 no. 59 (June 1991): 125. p. 125
    Wardwell, Anne E. "Two Silk and Gold Textiles of the Early Mongol Period." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 79, no. 10 (1992): 354-78. Reproduced: cover, pp. 359-361, 377-378, fig. 5; Mentioned: pp. 354-378 www.jstor.org
    Wardwell, Anne E. "Important Asian Textiles Recently Acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art," Oriental Art N.S. 38 no.4 (Winter 1992/93): 249. p. 249
    Reynods, Valrae, "Silk in Tibet: Luxury Textiles in Secular Life and Sacred Art," The Second Hali Annual: Asian Art, ed. Jil Tilden (London, 1995): 86-97. no. 7
    Watt, James C. Y., Anne E. Wardwell, and Morris Rossabi. When silk was gold: Central Asian and Chinese textiles. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art in cooperation with the Cleveland Museum of Art: Distributed by H.N. Abrams, 1997. Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 43, fig. 53, 60, 61; pp. 128, 133-134, 154-155
    Bonhams Knightsbridge. Islamic Works of Art including two 'Fostat Carpet' Fragments. 21 April 1999. p. 62, fig. b
    Kuhn, Dieter, Feng Zhao, Juanjuan Chen, Nengfu Huang, Wenying Li, Hao Peng, and Feng Zhao. Chinese Silks. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012. p. 338
    Highet, Juliet. "Silks from Islamic Lands." The Asian Art Newspaper: Monthly for Collectors, Dealers, Museums and Galleries 17, issue 5 (March 2014):16-18. Reproduced: p. 16
    Mackie, Louise W. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century. Cleveland, OH; New Haven, CT: The Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2015. Reproduced: P. 210, 217, 219, fig. 6.4; Mentioned: P. 180, 215, 226. 227
    Mühlemann, Corinne. Complex Weaves: Technique, Text, and Cultural History of Striped Silks. Affalterbach: Didymos-Verlag, 2023. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 159-160, figs. 77-78
  • An Epic of Kings: The Great Mongol Shahnama. National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, DC (organizer) (September 21, 2024-January 12, 2025) https://asia.si.edu/whats-on/exhibitions/mongol-shahnama/.
    Luxuriance: Silks from Islamic Lands, 1250–1900. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 14, 2013-June 23, 2014).
    When Silk Was Gold: Central Asian & Chinese Textiles from the Cleveland and Metropolitan Museums of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 26, 1997-January 4, 1998); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (organizer) (March 2-May 17, 1998).
    Notable Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 15, 1991).
  • {{cite web|title=Cloth of gold with felines and eagles|url=false|author=|year=1225–75|access-date=25 March 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1990.2