This object has no known copyright, and as such we offer a high-resolution image of it. See our image rights statement.

See more objects with the tag circles, illusionistic, domestic interiors, identity, jewels, portrait, clothing, Coptic art, faces.

See more objects with the color tan darkslategrey saddlebrown grey saddlebrown or see all the colors for this object.

Object Timeline

-0001	We photographed this object.
1902	We acquired this object.
2014	We exhibited this object. This was an Object of the Day.
2020	You found it!

Square (Egypt)

This is a Square. We acquired it in 1902. Its medium is wool and its technique is plain weave with discontinuous wefts (slit tapestry). It is a part of the Textiles department.

Woven portrait busts were a popular way to decorate clothing and soft furnishings in late Roman (third-fourth century C.E.) and Byzantine (fourth-seventh century C.E.) Egypt. Records show that woven busts sometimes portrayed real people. For example, the Emperor Gratian (d. 383 C.E.) is known to have sent the Consul Ausonius a tunic featuring a woven portrait of Constantius. While this bust of a woman may represent a real person, the fragment contains no identifying attributes. The carefully-shaded jewels on the surrounding frame resemble the cabochon rubies and roughly faceted emeralds used in fine jewelry, suggesting that she was a woman of status. A depiction of the Empress Theodora in the Basilica San Vitale uses similar shading to depict the Empress’s jewels.

This object was featured in our Object of the Day series in a post titled Mystery Woman.

This object was donated by John Pierpont Morgan.