The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 20, 2024

Samite fragments with double-headed eagles, from the tomb of Saint Bernard Calvo

Samite fragments with double-headed eagles, from the tomb of Saint Bernard Calvo

1200–1243
samite: silk
Overall: 118 x 165 cm (46 7/16 x 64 15/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1951.92
Location: not on view

Description

This silk is woven with horizontal rows of incompleted ovals, each containing a double-headed eagle grasping lions with its talons. It belongs to a group of Spanish silks that emulated the great silks being produced at that time in Byzantium. During the 11th and 12th centuries, Spanish weavers not only drew freely upon Byzantine and Near Eastern models for their designs, but at times went so far as to create outright forgeries. This is one of several textiles found in the tomb of St. Bernard Calvo, Bishop of Vich in Spain, who died in 1243.
  • originally from tomb of St. Bernard Calvo, Bishop of Vich, 1233-1243. (Paul O. Berliz, New York).
  • Shepherd, Dorothy G. "The Third Silk from the Tomb of Saint Bernard Calvo." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 39, no. 1 (1952): 13-14. p. 13-14 www.jstor.org
    New York University. Spanish Medieval Art. Loan Exhibition in Honor of Dr. Walter W.S. Cook. 1954. p. 21, no. 66
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 118 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 218 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. 218 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. 275 archive.org
    Ettinghausen, Richard, Oleg Grabar, and Sheila Blair. The art and architecture of Islam, 650-1250. 1987. p. 162, fig. 141
    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. 177, fig. 5.8; Mentioned: P. 177, 180
  • Textiles from Egypt, Syria and Spain: 7th through 15th centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 26-June 6, 1991).
    East-West in Art. Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN.
    East-West in Art, Indiana University Museum, Bloomington, IN (June 22-October 15, 1966).
    Spanish Medieval Art. The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (December 15, 1954-January 30, 1955).
    35th Anniversary Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 20-September 30, 1951).
  • {{cite web|title=Samite fragments with double-headed eagles, from the tomb of Saint Bernard Calvo|url=false|author=|year=1200–1243|access-date=20 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1951.92