Catalog Number
|
Catalog Number |
CAS 0389-2454 | |
| 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 | “Three fragments of a tunic [CAS 0389-2453, 0389-2454, 0389-2457]. Originally the tunic had clavus bands that ran from the shoulders to the hem. At the neckline a matching band connected the clavus bands, and the usual double bands decorated the wrist area of the sleeves. All the bands are bordered by narrower bands containing lozenges and are filled with multicolored squares, each containing a fanciful, vaguely zoomorphic figure. In addition, the neck band is embellished with a row of pendant motifs. The fragments all have a discolored cream ground with decorative motifs in red, dark yellow, dark blue, and red-purple. The material is wool, and the whole tunic was woven in tapestry, 7 x 28 [warp : weft per square cm], with a few minor design details added in embroidery, worked with long stitches on the reverse side. The unused warp of the sleeve was formed into a corded edge (for a diagram illustrating the technique see Start [1914:9, fig. 6]). All yarn is S-twist. Tenth century. Remarks: Possibly made for a Muslim Copt, the designs appear to avoid resemblances (sic) to living creatures and yet to give the illusion of an ordinary Coptic tunic with figured ornament. A number of native Egyptians converted to the Muslim faith, in part for the economic advantages it offered; members of the Christian faith were heavily taxed. [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 # 65B, pp. 136, 172, 174; color plate, p. 143.] | |
| Dimensions (cm) | Width = 35.8, Length = 47.2 | |