The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Mantle for a Statue of the Virgin with Lotus Blossoms and Medallions

Mantle for a Statue of the Virgin with Lotus Blossoms and Medallions

c. 1430
Silk and gilt-metal thread: lampas weave
Overall: 70.5 x 111.2 cm (27 3/4 x 43 3/4 in.); Mounted: 78.1 x 119.4 cm (30 3/4 x 47 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1939.40
Location: not on view

Description

This costly royal silk with extensive gold thread was woven in Egypt and gifted or exported to Spain, where it was pieced into this mantle for a statue of the Virgin, probably to be worn during festivals and processions.

The sturdy silk brocade foundation cloth was also woven with a lighter weight silk damask with a repeating mirror image. Therefore, the Arabic inscription in the medallions reads both forward and backward: Glory to our master, the sultan, the king. The inscribed lobed roundels say The sultan, the king.
  • according to Mr. Elsberg, the mantle came from a church near Valencia, Spain.
    ?-1939
    (H. [Herman] A. Elsberg [1869–1938], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1939-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Underhill, Gertrude. “Textiles from the H. A. Elsberg Collection.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 26, no. 9, 1939, pp. 143–146. Mentioned: pp. 144-45; Reproduced: p. 142 25138043
    Los Angeles County Museum. 2000 Years of Silk Weaving: An Exhibition Sponsored by the Los Angeles County Museum in Collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Arts. New York: E. Weyhe, 1944. pl. 66, no. 291
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 715 archive.org
    Schmidt, Heinrich Jakob. Alte Seidenstoffe; ein Handbuch für Sammler und Liebhaber. Braunschweig: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1958. fig. 137
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 214 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 214 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 270 archive.org
    Atıl, Esin. Renaissance of Islam: Art of the Mamluks. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981. no. 116, pp. 232-233
    Wardwell, Anne E. "Flight of the Phoenix: Crosscurrents in Late Thirteenth- to Fourteenth-Century Silk Patterns and Motifs." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 74, no. 1 (1987): 2-35. p. 22, fig. 27 25159970
    Indictor, Norman, Robert J. (Robert John) Koestler, Christopher Blair, and Anne E. Wardwell. “The Evaluation of Metal Wrappings from Medieval Textiles Using Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive x-Ray Spectrometry.” Textile History 19 (1). 1988. p.3-22
    Mackie, Louise W. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century. Cleveland; New Haven: Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2015. Reproduced: P. 240, 270-271, fig. 7.31; Mentioned: P. 270
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016. Mentioned and Reproduced: P. 29
    Flood, Finbarr Barry, and Gülru Necipoğlu, eds. A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell, 2017. Reproduced: p. 987
    Peinado, Laura Rodriguez. "Los Textiles Como Objetos de Lujo y de Intercambio." In Las Artes en Al-Andalus y Egipto: Contextos e Intercambios. Susana Calvo Capilla, ed. Madrid: Ediciones de La Ergástula, 2017. Mentioned: p. 199; Reproduced: p. 200
    Akin, Esra. Muthanna / History, Theory, and Aesthetics. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2020. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 138, fig. 5.8
    Clarke, Sarah E. Braddock, and Ryoko Yamanaka Kondo. Byzantine Silk on the Silk Roads: Journeys between East and West, Past and Present. London ; New York : Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2022. Reproduced: p. 92, fig. 7.5
  • Al-Andalus: Art from Islamic Spain (Islamic art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 29, 2019-October 25, 2020).
    Luxuriance: Silks from Islamic Lands, 1250-1900. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 14, 2013-June 23, 2014).
    Gallery 207 textile rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 20, 2002-May 5, 2004).
    Textiles from Egypt, Syria and Spain: 7th through 15th centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 26-June 6, 1991).
    Renaissance of Islam: Art of the Mamluks. National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, DC (May 14-July 19, 1981); Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN (August 15-October 11, 1981); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (November 7, 1981-January 3, 1982); The Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH (February 6-April 4, 1982); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (April 24-June 20, 1982); Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ (January 8-March 6, 1983); Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT (April 2-May 29, 1983).
    2000 Years of Silk Weaving. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 18-April 16, 1944).
  • {{cite web|title=Mantle for a Statue of the Virgin with Lotus Blossoms and Medallions|url=false|author=|year=c. 1430|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1939.40