Piece
Unknown Artist
18th century
Medium
Silk
Dimensions
L. 7 3/4 x W. 3 1/2 inches 19.7 x 8.9 cm
Classification
Textiles-Woven
Culture
French
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of The United Piece Dye Works, 1936
Accession Number
36.90.917
Tags
Art Historical Context
This exquisite silk textile fragment, titled simply *Piece*, hails from 18th-century France, a golden era for European decorative arts when luxurious silks adorned the courts of Versailles and fashionable salons across the continent. Woven with remarkable precision, this small panel—measuring just 7¾ by 3½ inches—likely served as a sample from a larger textile production, showcasing intricate leaf motifs that evoke the natural elegance prized in Rococo design. Its classification as a woven textile underscores the mastery of French looms, where skilled artisans created shimmering patterns throu...