Harvard Art Museums > 1917.114: Textile Fragment: Rabbit Textile Arts Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Textile Fragment: Rabbit , 1917.114,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Dec 25, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/213650. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Identification and Creation Object Number 1917.114 Title Textile Fragment: Rabbit Classification Textile Arts Work Type textile Date 5th-6th century Places Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Africa, Egypt (Ancient) Period Byzantine period, Early Culture Byzantine Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/213650 Physical Descriptions Medium Wool and linen Technique Woven, mixed technique Dimensions 18.5 x 17 cm (7 5/16 x 6 11/16 in.) Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Denman W. Ross Accession Year 1917 Object Number 1917.114 Division Asian and Mediterranean Art Contact am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Descriptions Description A slit tapestry square (tabula), woven from dark purple and undyed wool wefts on linen warps, is surrounded by several inches of plain/tabby woven linen fabric. The figural design is dark against a light background. At the center of the fragment is a running rabbit inside a medallion. The wide decorative border around the rabbit contains sections of delicate interlace (triple strand guilloche) with dots inside the lobes on all four sides, separated by vines and leaves at each corner. The vines and rabbit are outlined in buff thread and stand against false hatched backgrounds (false hatching creates a mottled effect by alternating light and dark threads in the weft. A crowstep border runs around the outside of the square. Supplementary weft wrapping ('flying shuttle') creates many of the vertical lines in the design (parallel to the warp direction), details of the rabbit, and the four dots outside the inner medallion. Strongly eccentric wefts can be seen in the curves of the figural design. The large slits to the right and left of the tapestry square are stitched closed. The square is inwoven with the warps grouped in the area of tapestry weave. Several pairs of self-bands, created by taking multiple threads together in the weft, decorate the areas of plain weave. Commentary Staining at bottom left suggests a funerary context for this textile. The energetic rabbit motif may have been popular for home decoration and clothing because it carried connotations of fertility and prosperity. The rabbit here is combined with the grapevine motif that recalled Dionysian elements of life and rebirth. Publication History Ioli Kalavrezou, Byzantine Women and Their World, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2003), p. 273/fig. 163 Exhibition History Byzantine Women and Their World, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/25/2002 - 04/28/2003 32Q: 3740 Egyptian, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/21/2016 - 06/01/2017 Verification Level This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
