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A rectangular textile fragment with a deep violet design on an off-white background showing two long parallel bands with zig-zag edges that contain small roundels depicting lions and hares.

The rectangular tapestry-woven textile fragment bears a dark, purplish-blue design on an off-white, undyed background. The design is of two parallel bands running the length of the piece, each blocked on either end by a solid section of purple. The bands have a zig-zag border on the top and bottom, then a solid purple stripe, and through the middle of each band are eleven small roundels depicting a hare or a lion.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1924.124
Title
Cuff Band: Stylized Animals
Classification
Textile Arts
Work Type
textile
Date
4th-5th century CE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Africa, Egypt (Ancient)
Period
Byzantine period, Early
Culture
Byzantine
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/215257

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Wool with linen threads on wool warps. Tapestry woven
Technique
Tapestry
Dimensions
12.7 x 33.22 cm (5 x 13 1/16 in.)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Dr. Denman W. Ross
Accession Year
1924
Object Number
1924.124
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description
This is a tapestry woven fragment, with the design of two parallel bands executed in dark blue wool. The visible warps are yellow in color. The bands each contain eleven circles of a regularized, twisting vine inhabited by a sequence of alternating animals. Perhaps they are lions or hares. Every other animal wears a ribbon around its neck. Areas of solid blue end and begin each band, pointing to its function as a cuff band.

The borders of the two bands are created out of thick zigzagging vines. The outer empty spaces along these vines sprout acanthus or grape leaves. The inner sides of the vine borders are filled by diamond shapes. The designs running along these two thick vines are created in a slightly darker and yellower thread than the other areas of undyed yarn. Details of the animals and the outer vine borders are executed in flying shuttle using undyed thread.
Commentary
This textile is a match for 1924.117, also a gift of Denman Waldo Ross. These two fragments have border designs very similar to that of 1924.110, though their relation to that piece is not certain.

This textile's design and approximate dimensions match those of 96.152a and 96.152b in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Those pieces were also a gift from the collection of Denman Waldo Ross, and were likely to come from the same textile.

Publication History

  • Mary McWilliams and Jochen Sokoly, Social Fabrics: Inscribed Textiles from Medieval Egyptian Tombs, exh. cat. (Cambridge, MA, February 22, 2022), pp. 106-7, cat. 22

Exhibition History

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