The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 28, 2024

Fragment

Fragment

before 1975
(945–1055) or Seljuq period (1037–1194)
Overall: 38.5 x 67 cm (15 3/16 x 26 3/8 in.)
Location: not on view

Description

This silk was originally reported to be one of several fragments from garments, shroud, and tomb covers unearthed during the early 1900s at Bibi Shahr Banu outside the ancient city of Rayy, a few miles from Tehran. The fragment preserves a beginning (or finishing) edge at the bottom and a small portion of selvage along the left edge.

The exceptionally beautiful design of this silk is filled with ornament. Even the spaces between the roundels containing birds and palmette trees and the octagons with inscriptions enclosing floral devices are ornamented with an intricate geometric pattern. Islamic art is, above all, decorative in accordance with Muhammed's dislike of representing living forms. In Iran, floral and animal motifs never ceased to be represented even after the Islamic invasion, but they were depicted in a highly ornamental fashion as seen here.
  • Originally reported as having been found in Bibi Shahr Banu, near Rayy, Iran
    ?-1975
    (Galerie Heidi Vollmoeller, Zürich, Switzerland, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1975-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1975.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 63, no. 2, 1976, pp. 31–71. Mentioned: no. 151, pp. 36, 70; Reproduced: no. 151, p. 37 www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 272 archive.org
    Wardwell, Anne E. Material Matters: Fifty Years of Gifts from the Textile Arts Club, 1934-1984: [Exhibition] 21 November-30 December 1984, the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Museum, 1984. p. 22
    Akin, Esra. Muthanna / History, Theory, and Aesthetics. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2020. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 149, fig. 5.16
  • Material Matters: Fifty Years of Gifts from the Textile Arts Club. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 21-December 30, 1984).
  • {{cite web|title=Fragment|url=false|author=|year=before 1975|access-date=28 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1975.38