Tiraz with gold
Unknown Artist
1094–1101
Medium
plain weave with inwoven tapestry weave: linen, silk, and gold filé
Dimensions
36.8 × 91.4 cm · mounted: 55.2 × 106.7 cm
Classification
Textile
Department
Textiles
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
1950.550
About this artwork
This essentially gold-on-gold fragment represents an artistic and technical pinnacle of tiraz woven with silk tapestry decoration around 1100. Expensive gold thread dominates in the decorative tapestry-woven bands in the open plain-weave linen ground. The bands with small roundels alternating with falcons attacking small birds required exceptional skill since they are more densely woven than the surrounding ground. Popular birds and animals of the hunt abound including heraldic eagles and hares....