Cleveland Museum of Art

Fragment with gold leaf lions

Date

1000s–1100s

Medium

Silk warp and cotton weft (mulham): plain weave; gold leaf, block printed

Culture

Iran or Iraq, Seljuk period

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Gold was block-printed onto mulham cloth with figures of lions—symbols of the royal hunt and imperial power. Gold lions adorned with collars and palmettes enliven squares on dark-brown and undyed mulham groups in a checkerboard layout. The pattern was printed with several blocks on the mulham surface. The process included drawing outlines with black ink and block printing with gold powder and dark-brown pigment, each mixed with a binding medium. The gold paint was flattened with rubbing, which created a good imitation of gold leaf. This is one of the comparatively few printed textiles with extensive use of costly gold to have survived from the medieval period in Iran or Iraq.

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