Textile Fragment
Unknown Artist
5th century
Medium
Wool
Dimensions
L. 4 1/2 in. (11.4 cm) W. 3 3/8 in. (8.6 cm)
Classification
Textiles
Department
Islamic Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Albert Eugene Gallatin, 1965
Accession Number
65.24.3
Tags
Art Historical Context
This exquisite wool textile fragment, dating to the 5th, invites visitors to marvel at a tiny window into early textile artistry from the Islamic world. Measuring a modest 4½ by 3⅜ inches (11.4 × 8.6 cm), it features delicate motifs of rabbits, woven with precision that speaks to the era's skilled craftsmanship. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department Islamic Art and gifted by Albert Eugene Gallatin in1965, it exemplifies classification of ancient textiles as vital cultural artifacts. Wool, a resilient and widely available medium, was central to pre-Islamic and early Islamic soc...