Fragment (Hanging)
Roman period (30 BCE– 641 CE), 5th/6th century
Medium
Linen and wool, plain weave with weft uncut pile and embroidered linen pile formed by variations of back and stem stitches
Dimensions
136.5 × 88.3 cm (53 3/4 × 34 3/4 in.)
Classification
textile
Department
Textiles
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
99602
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Because many textiles made by early Egyptians were preserved in arid tombs, a substantial number of these fabrics have survived in remarkably good condition. This striking portion of a wall hanging depicts a figure standing beneath a colonnaded, arched opening. With raised arms, which perhaps once held candelabrum, he wears a traditional tunic with clavic bands (the narrow strips extending down from the shoulders, on the front and back, to the waist or hem). This woven piece is distinguished by ...
About the Artist
Coptic
Coptic, the collective attribution for anonymous masters of early Christian Egypt, embodies the vibrant fusion of pharaonic, Hellenistic, and Greco-Roman traditions that defined art from the 4th century onward. Emerging in the context of Coptic Christianity's rise after the 1st century AD, these artists operated amid economic constraints that favored functional craftsmanship over elite patronage, ...