Textile Fragment with Cotton Goddess
Unknown Artist
800–500 BCE
Medium
Cotton, pigments
Dimensions
34.3 × 36.2 cm · mounted: 39.1 × 41.3 cm
Classification
Textile
Department
Textiles
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
Accession Number
2017.56
About this artwork
The figure painted on this fragment represents a female deity with a large, fanged mouth. Further fanged heads occur on the chest, legs, feet, waist, and staffs of authority she holds. Edging both the staffs and the top of the head are white cotton bolls that have caused the deity to be dubbed the Cotton Goddess and associated with nature’s fertility.