Cleveland Museum of Art

Fragment with Senmurvs

Date

prior to 1971

Medium

Silk: lampas weave

Culture

Iran or Iraq, in the style of the Abbasid period (750–1258)

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This fragment preserves three large, aligned, tangent ovals in a column. Each oval contains a senmurv ornamented with foliate and geometric forms; the border contains a stylized foliate motif. Ovals are joined at their cardinal points with a cross-shaped geometric figure within a smaller oval bordered with pearls. Interspaces contain X-shaped medallions consisting of four palmettes around a diamond center. According to recent analysis of the museum’s Buyid and Abbasid textile materials, some have been identified as modern reproductions. Senmurvs are benevolent, mythical birds in Persian mythology and literature.

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