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A textile fragment showing a roundel with a red center and a dark blue border. The border contains horizontal stripes of various colors and the roundel has a multicolored pattern of hearts, flowers, and vines.

The tapestry-woven woolen roundel is bordered by a fragmentary plain-weave linen fabric. The red center of the roundel has a yellow circle in the center with blue dots, flanked on four sides by heart-shaped flowers. Alternating between the flowers are four clusters of vines. The roundel is bordered by a dark blue band with white edges. In the blue border are horizontal zig-zag stripes in pink, orange, yellow, green, white, and blue.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1917.111
Title
Roundel with Multicolored Ivy Leaves
Classification
Textile Arts
Work Type
textile
Date
7th-8th century
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Africa, Egypt (Ancient)
Period
Byzantine period
Culture
Byzantine
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/213696

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Wool on linen
Technique
Woven, tapestry weave
Dimensions
16.5 x 16 cm (6 1/2 x 6 5/16 in.)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Denman W. Ross
Accession Year
1917
Object Number
1917.111
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
Tapestry woven roundel of colored wool wefts set into plain woven linen cloth. The roundel is not a perfect circle, with flattened top and bottom. The central field of the medallion is red with four heart-shaped flowers with white leaves. The heart shaped flowers are outlined in dark blue and each consist of several different colors: white, yellow, orange, or pink. Between the flowers are white tendrils with yellow and green leaves. Yellow dots containing smaller green dots are placed regularly around the flowers and tendrils. The innermost medallion holds an eight-petalled flower ringed by gold, red, and white. Each petal of the inner flower has a white dot with a smaller red or green dot within it. The medallion has an outer border of interlocking color segments similar to butterfly wings on a dark blue field. The order of the colors in these segments follows a symmetrical arrangement on both horizontal and vertical axes. At top and bottom, the light blue, green and white segments do not interlock.
Commentary
Compare to general composition of Museum für Angewandte Kunst T 117 and T 118. Similarities to British Museum 1923,1103.31.

Publication History

  • Ioli Kalavrezou, Byzantine Women and Their World, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2003), p. 156/fig. 81

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, 06/01/2022 - 11/28/2022

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