| Description |
“Fragment of a decorated textile. This multicolored square ornament is composed of geometric motifs. In the center is a circle framed by a square. In each corner a smaller circle is connected to the middle square by a short length of cable pattern. A band containing a braid connects the small roundels at top and bottom, a wider band with a species of twined pattern (sic) connects the roundels at the sides. The middle circle is filled with small geometric motifs, the outer circles by lozenges. The piece is tapestry weave with linen warp and wool and linen weft, 8 x 32 [warp : weft per square cm]. All yarn is S-twist. Eleventh or twelfth century. Remarks: The design bears a resemblance to designs found on some early medieval jeweled book covers. [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 # 72, pp. 136, 182-183.] |
