Catalog Number
|
Catalog Number |
CAS 0389-2415 | |
| 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. 800-1000 CE | |
| Collection Name | Rietz Collection of Textiles | |
| Materials | Wool | |
| Description | “Section cut from a banded textile. The design scheme consists of a decorated red band between two plain dark-blue ones. The red band has double borders, the outer border ornamented with tan Greek crosses, the inner border with linked tricolor ivy leaves on a tan ground. The center of the band contains a procession of quadrupeds, some with horns. Between each animal is a formal plant motif. The animals and plants are worked in dull yellow, pink, light green, and medium green. The piece is tapestry, with wool warp and weft, 9 x 32 [warp : weft per square cm]. All yarn is S-twist. Ninth or tenth century. Remarks: Processions of animals have a long history in Classical art and derive from the Near East. This example represents an early Medieval version of an ancient theme. [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 # 44, pp. 75, 136, 148; color plate, p. 140.] | |
| Dimensions (cm) | Width = 33.0, Length = 13.0 | |