| Description |
“Garment ornament. The form is a roundel with a double border ornamented with a rope pattern. In the center is a half-length figure of a crowned, nimbate woman with dark, wavy hair and elaborate earrings. One hand, holding an object of uncertain identity, is upraised. Colors are tan, black, cream, dark yellow, dull red, and dull medium green. The piece is tapestry, wool and linen weft on linen warp. The latter is two-ply Z twist [the former S-twist]. The count is 11 x 48 [warp : weft per square cm]. Late sixth or early seventh century. Remarks: Women with halos are common in Coptic art. This example may represent Isis, or a Christian saint, perhaps Mary Magdalene, a popular figure for Copts because of her later life spent as a hermit. Coptic Christians consider living a life devoted to religious practices, apart and alone, to be particularly meritorious. [Regarding textiles in this group, DL Carroll # 27-40 (CAS 0389-2378, -2380, -2385, -2386, -2388, -2400, -2404, -2412, -2429, -2430, -2433, -2451, -2452, -2539, -2584, -2585):] By the sixth century two basic types of textile ornaments were used to decorate garments. One, which was in use before the fourth century, was essentially monochrome. Designs in the monochrome class were both non-representational and figurative - the latter included a wide range of subject matter: plant, animal, human, and mythological. The second type is polychrome. Polychrome textiles had been made earlier, but not for use as garments. Extant examples are thought to have been decorative hangings, woven pictures as it were, that are commonly called tapestries. The use of what are essentially miniature tapestries for embellishing clothing is believed to have begun in the sixth century and to have lasted well into the Muslim period.†[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 # 39, pp. 116, 132, 135.] |
