Cleveland Museum of Art

Wall Hanging or Ceiling Canopy

Date

early 1900s

Medium

tabby weave, weft ikat; silk

Culture

Cambodia, Khmer People, early 20th century

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The silk wefts of this textile were resist dyed with a design of elephants, temples, large tigers (?), sacred trees, and humans before the textile was woven. Both the weft-ikat technique and the motifs reveal the influence of Indian textiles, particularly patola . The dark reddish-maroon color of the ground, however, was not produced by over-dyeing, as in India and Bali, but by the combination of red wefts with black warps. This silk was made to serve as a wall hanging or ceiling canopy in a Buddhist temple.

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