Fragment with gold leaf lions
Unknown Artist
1000s - 1100s
Medium
plain weave: silk warp and cotton weft (mulham); block printed and gold leaf
Dimensions
32.1 × 40 cm
Classification
Textile
Department
Textiles
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
1950.558
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Gold was block-printed onto mulham cloth with figures of lions—symbols of the royal hunt and imperial power. Gold lions adorned with collars and palmettes enliven squares on dark-brown and undyed mulham groups in a checkerboard layout. The pattern was printed with several blocks on the mulham surface. The process included drawing outlines with black ink and block printing with gold powder and dark-brown pigment, each mixed with a binding medium. The gold paint was flattened with rubbing, which c...