Catalog Number
|
Catalog Number |
CAS 0389-2390 | |
| Category | Textiles | |
| Object Name | Coptic textile fragment | |
| Culture | Coptic Egyptian | |
| Global Region | North Africa | |
| Country | Egypt | |
| State/Prov./Dist. | ||
| County | ||
| Other Geographic Data | unknown | |
| Maker's Name | Unknown | |
| Date of Manufacture | ca. 600-700 CE | |
| Collection Name | Rietz Collection of Textiles | |
| Materials | Linen; Wool | |
| Description | “Fragment of a tunic clavus. What remains is a multicolored band with double jewel inlay borders framing a variety of motifs: two nude dancers, a winged child, a winged dog, and a fragmentary motif that may represent the lower part of a standing, robed figure. On a dark pink ground, figures and border are worked in medium pink, black, light green, gray, beige, and dull yellow. The fragment is tapestry, woven in wool and linen weft, linen warp, 8 x 36 [warp : weft per square cm]. All yarn is S-twist. Seventh century. Remarks: This clavus fragment is mounted on a linen cloth, perhaps ancient, but unrelated. Turned-under edges indicate that the piece was reused in antiquity. The theme of the motif could be Dionysian, the robed figure representing this god. [Regarding textiles in this group, DL Carroll # 41-72 (CAS 0389-2382, -2384, -2389, -2390, -2391, -2392, -2393, -2396, -2399, -2401, -2405, -2409, -2410, -2411, -2414, -2415, -2416, -2417, -2419, -2420, -2422, -2423, -2424, -2427, -2434, -2435, -2436, -2453, -2454, -2457, -2579, -2580, -2581, -2582, -2599):] After the Arab conquest in the mid-seventh century, Coptic textile design changed its character, moving ever more distant from its classical Roman and Greek sources. In part, this was a reaction against Byzantine culture, associated in the Coptic mind with oppression. Contributing to the change may have been Islamic prohibitions against depicting human and animal figures. Such figures when they appear in Coptic textiles of the later periods become increasingly abstract to the point of being virtually unrecognizable.†[From Looms and Textiles of the Copts by Diane Lee Carroll (San Francisco, CA: Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences, No. 11, 1988); Catalog # 41, pp. 136-137.] | |
| Dimensions (cm) | Width = 8.5, Length = 18.5 | |