Catalog Number
|
Catalog Number |
CAS 0389-2391 | |
| 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. 900-1000 CE, probably | |
| Collection Name | Rietz Collection of Textiles | |
| Materials | Wool | |
| Description | “Tunic sleeve fragment. The dark yellow ground is decorated with bands and figures in dull purple and dark green. The design is organized as two identical bands, each with a single line of reverse arcade on the outermost edge. The filler motif, a fish nibbling the stem of a floating water plant, is repeated nine times on each band. The motifs are disposed in double rows on each band, forming two processions of fish swimming in opposite directions. The weave is tapestry with wool warp and weft, 10 x 78 [warp : weft per square cm]. All yarn is S-twist. Tenth century (?) (sic). Related example: London, Victoria and Albert Museum (Kendrick 1920, no. 18 pl. 26; Baginski and Tidhar 1980:79, no. 97). Remarks: The fish and water plant motif was a common one in ancient Egyptian art and continued in use during the Coptic period, one of the few ancient motifs to be retained by Coptic artists. [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 # 52, pp. 136, 158-159; color plate, p. 141.] | |
| Dimensions (cm) | Width = 22.0, Length = 15.0 | |