The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of August 15, 2022

Celestial banquet hanging, from the tomb of Bishop Gurb

1200-1284

Spain, probably Almeria

Silk and gold thread: plain weave with inwoven tapestry weave

Overall: 21.2 x 58.4 cm (8 3/8 x 23 in.); Mounted: 30.2 x 67 cm (11 7/8 x 26 3/8 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1966.368

Location

not on view

Description

This rare silk fragment is from a luxurious hanging of brightly colored silk and shiny gold thread that displayed rows of figural roundels on a plain ground. The two turbaned men holding flasks flanking a palmette tree and the turbaned rider with a flying scarf are derived from the ancient Near Eastern imperial themes of the banquet and the hunt. The Arabic inscription framing each roundel proclaims, There is no god but Allah.

This piece along with several others were reportedly found in the tomb of Bishop Gurb (died 1284) in the Cathedral of Barcelona in about 1890.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Arabic inscription bordering the roundels translates: "There is no god but God."

Provenance
1200s
reportedly from tomb of Don Arnaldo de Gurb, Bishop of Barcelona [d. 1284], Montaner-Capmany, Barcelona, Spain
?-1966
(Arturo Ramon Garriga, Barcelona, Spain, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1966-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Shepherd, Dorothy G. "A Treasure from a Thirteenth-Century Spanish Tomb." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 65, no. 4 (1978). p. 111-134 www.jstor.org
Brett, Michael, and Werner Forman. The Moors: Islam in the West. London: Orbis Pub, 1980. p. 15 color illus
Martin Nagy, Rebecca. Textiles in Daily Life in the Middle Ages. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1985. p. 35-37, 58
Mackie, Louise W. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century. Cleveland; New Haven: Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2015. Reproduced: P.189, fig. 5.22; Mentioned: P. 189, 198
Akin, Esra. Muthanna / History, Theory, and Aesthetics. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2020. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 134, fig. 5.5
Exhibition history

Year in Review: 1967. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 29-December 31, 1967).

Textiles in Daily Life in the Middle Ages. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 22-March 17, 1985).

Textiles from Egypt, Syria and Spain: 7th through 15th centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 26-June 6, 1991).

Islamic Gallery 207 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 19, 2001-June 3, 2002).

Al-Andalus: Art from Islamic Spain (Islamic art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 29, 2019-October 25, 2020).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1966.368