Textile Fragment with the Annunciation
Unknown Artist
1370–1400
Medium
Silk with gold thread; lampas weave
Dimensions
23.2 × 47.6 cm · mounted: 28.6 × 53.3 cm
Classification
Textile
Department
Textiles
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Dudley P. Allen Fund
Accession Number
1931.61
About this artwork
The motif shown here depicts the Virgin Mary and the angel Gabriel in a repeating sequence. Both figures kneel above a bed of flowers while a dove representing the Holy Ghost hovers above. The ground of this luxury silk, woven with highlights of gold thread, is now a faded blue. Its original purpose is not clear, but it may have originally been part of an altar frontal or possibly an ecclesiastical cope, or cape.