Catalog Number
|
Catalog Number |
CAS 0389-2422 | |
| 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 | |
| Collection Name | Rietz Collection of Textiles | |
| Materials | Wool | |
| Description | “Rectangle cut from a tunic. The design motifs are contained in a roundel [from the shoulder region] and a clavus. Both roundel and clavus have spiral-wave borders and contain motifs depicting human figures in violent action [Isaac and Abraham, perhaps] and spotted [running] animals, possibly leopards. The clavus band ends in leaf-form pendants. The ornamentation is rendered in dark red-purple on a plain ground, now discolored but originally the creamy white color of undyed wool. Woven entirely of wool, the ground has a count of 9 x 18 [warp : weft per square cm], the tapestry inserts, 9 x 23 [warp : weft per square cm]. Two lines of twining, double rows on paired warps, may have helped to prepare the area in which the clavus was woven and to keep it straight. The area for the roundel was prepared by weaving the ground first, leaving an open space in the warp shaped like a slice cut from one side of a circle that was of greater diameter than the planned roundel. Next the roundel was started, filing in the space on either side with yarn that matched the rest of the ground. When the shape of the roundel was established, the weaving of both ground and roundel was carried out more or less simultaneously, areas awkward for the shuttle being filled in with needle-woven tapestry. When completed, the roundel appeared enclosed in a shadowy lentoid, barely discernable (sic), and not intended to be a decorative element. While the roundel and clavus were woven neatly enough, some details indicate carelessness on the part of the weaver; for example, one warp end was left down for nearly 10 cm before the defective heddle was noticed and corrected, and there are sections of doubled wefts that appear to be accidental, too. All yarn is S-twist. Tenth century. Remarks: Two of the figures may be enacting the story of the interrupted sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham, being observed by an angel flying overhead. The theme was a popular one in the late period, but through repetition the design became increasingly debased and nearly unrecognizable, as in the example here. [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 # 56, pp. 136, 162-163, 165.] | |
| Dimensions (cm) | Width = 29.0, Length = 55.0 | |