The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of August 7, 2022

Cloth of gold with felines and eagles

1225-75

Northeast Iran

Silk and gold thread: lampas

Overall: 170.5 x 109 cm (67 1/8 x 42 15/16 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1990.2

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Mongol cloths of gold, called <em>nasji</em>, incorporate Iranian, Central Asian, and Chinese features, reflecting the effects of gift exchanges and international commerce.

Description

Mongol taste for luxury was equated with gold, symbol of imperial authority, power, and legitimacy. This splendid cloth of gold-exceptionally large and luxurious-may have enriched the interior of a palace or a majestic tent. The golden pattern, although tarnished on the faded red silk ground, features scalloped medallions with felines whose long tails terminate in dragons’ heads amid elegant floral vines. Double-headed eagles form interstitial motifs on the floral ground. A radiant gold-on-gold band of pseudo-Arabic script enriches the top, woven with gold strips wrapped around a silk core on a ground of flat strips of gold, immediately beneath the pattern testing area.

Provenance
1988?-1990
(Thupten Zong Lo, Hong Kong, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1990-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Museum, 1991. p. 47 archive.org
Wardwell, Anne E. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (1991): 63-147. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 123 www.jstor.org
"Exhibitions, Golden Lampas." HALI; the international journal of Oriental carpets and textiles 13 no. 59 (June 1991): 125. p. 125
Wardwell, Anne E. "Two Silk and Gold Textiles of the Early Mongol Period." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 79, no. 10 (1992): 354-78. Reproduced: cover, pp. 359-361, 377-378, fig. 5; Mentioned: pp. 354-378 www.jstor.org
Wardwell, Anne E. "Important Asian Textiles Recently Acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art," Oriental Art N.S. 38 no.4 (Winter 1992/93): 249. p. 249
Reynods, Valrae, "Silk in Tibet: Luxury Textiles in Secular Life and Sacred Art," The Second Hali Annual: Asian Art, ed. Jil Tilden (London, 1995): 86-97. no. 7
Watt, James C. Y., Anne E. Wardwell, and Morris Rossabi. When silk was gold: Central Asian and Chinese textiles. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art in cooperation with the Cleveland Museum of Art: Distributed by H.N. Abrams, 1997. Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 43, fig. 53, 60, 61; pp. 128, 133-134, 154-155
Bonhams Knightsbridge. Islamic Works of Art including two 'Fostat Carpet' Fragments. 21 April 1999. p. 62, fig. b
Kuhn, Dieter, Feng Zhao, Juanjuan Chen, Nengfu Huang, Wenying Li, Hao Peng, and Feng Zhao. Chinese Silks. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012. p. 338
Highet, Juliet. "Silks from Islamic Lands." The Asian Art Newspaper: Monthly for Collectors, Dealers, Museums and Galleries 17, issue 5 (March 2014):16-18. Reproduced: p. 16
Mackie, Louise W. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century. Cleveland, OH; New Haven, CT: The Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2015. Reproduced: P. 210, 217, 219, fig. 6.4; Mentioned: P. 180, 215, 226. 227
Exhibition history

Notable Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 15, 1991).

When Silk Was Gold: Central Asian & Chinese Textiles from the Cleveland and Metropolitan Museums of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (organizer) (March 2-May 17, 1998).

Luxuriance: Silks from Islamic Lands, 1250-1900. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 14, 2013-June 23, 2014).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1990.2