The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 14, 2025

Square silk canopy with a circular, geometric lotus blossom opening out from the center and colored dominantly in yellow and red with added details in green and blue. A curling wave-like pattern in these colors provides a square border to the flower with a lanky green dragon swooping down on a yellow winged lion repeated in each of the four corners. The lotus alternates between petals and rings of repeated floral patterns.

Lotus-blossom petal canopy

c. 1600

Northern India

silk: lampas
Overall: 186.7 x 175.7 cm (73 1/2 x 69 3/16 in.); Mounted: 191.8 x 203.2 cm (75 1/2 x 80 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2006.136
Location: Not on view

Description

The ceilings of sacred spaces throughout India were carved or painted with concentric circular lotus patterns; many also included textile canopies with the same designs. This exceptionally large example was woven in one complete section on a single loom. In India, the full-blown lotus flower bears solar connotations. It projects the radiance of a sacred or royal presence below. The motif of a dragon bearing down on a winged lion in each of the four corners indicates the designer’s recognition of a motif popular across Islamic Asia, from Turkey to Iran and Mughal India.
  • March 25, 2004
    (Christie's New York, March 25, 2004 sale, lot no. 55)
    ?–2006
    (The Textile Gallery, London, England, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2006–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • 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.6, fig. 10.4
  • Temples and Worship in South Asia. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 14, 2024-March 9, 2025).
    Luxuriance: Silks from Islamic Lands, 1250–1900. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 14, 2013-June 23, 2014).
  • {{cite web|title=Lotus-blossom petal canopy|url=false|author=|year=c. 1600|access-date=14 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2006.136