Cleveland Museum of Art

Fragments

Date

1420–1955

Medium

Silk: compound twill weave

Culture

Iran or Iraq

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The weave provides different design for each side of this fragment. On the front, the overall lozenge pattern has alternating rows of ornamented ovals and diamonds. The large diamonds have a large four-leaved motif superimposed over a diamond with trees in each corner. The foliate ground with four pairs of opposed griffins fills the interspaces to the oval border. The diamonds have two opposed pairs of birds each flanking a Tree of Life and standing on a plant motif; these enclose a smaller central diamond with trees in each corner and a central square. On the reverse, the plain ground of natural tan has two brown bands with large and small Kufic inscriptions. The design is at right angles to the warp.

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