Silk fragment with scrolling vines, grape leaves, grapes, and birds
Unknown Artist
1325–50
Medium
Silk: lampas weave
Dimensions
24.1 × 25.4 cm · mounted: 42.2 × 43.2 cm
Classification
Textile
Department
Textiles
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Florence and Charles Abel Oriental Rug Collection by exchange
Accession Number
1971.75
About this artwork
This silk fragment displays a revolutionary new fashion in Italian textile design, influenced by the exotic patterns in silks imported from China, Byzantium, and Islamic countries of the Middle East. Beginning in the 1320s, instead of the static arrangement of motifs stacked one above the other, Italian designers staggered the motifs, creating asymmetry and movement. Even this fragment suggests motion through the arrangement of motifs in a curved lattice layout. However, the actual motifs—the gr...