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Object Timeline
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Square (Egypt)
This is a Square. It is dated 5th–7th century and 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.
Mystery Woman
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 could sometimes portray real people. For example, the Emperor Gratian (d. 383 C.E.) sent the Consul Ausonius a tunic inwoven with a portrait of Constantius.[1] While the weaving displayed here, a bust of a woman surrounded with a jeweled border, may represent a real person, the textile gives no indication of her identity. Three textiles with similar imagery, materials, and techniques – two in the Victoria and Albert Museum and one in Berlin’s Staatlichen Museen – also do not specify their bust’s identity. Like Cooper-Hewitt's textile, these examples do not include identifying attributes, like cornucopia that accompany figures of the god Dionysus. Perhaps these busts were generic figures, or perhaps the identity of the figures held personal, rather than public, relevance to their owners. Shading in the depiction of the jewels in the framework aims to resemble the cabochon rubies and roughly faceted emeralds used in fine jewelry. The depiction of the Empress Theodora in the Basilica San Vitale uses similar shading to depict the Empress’s jewels.
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[1] Francisque Michel, Recherches, p. 20, note 2 (Ausonius ad Gratianum imp. Pro cons. XXI.)., cited in Kendrick, Albert Frank. Catalogue of Textiles from Burying-grounds in Egypt. Vol. 1. London: HM Stationery Off., 1920, p. 55.
This object was featured in our Object of the Week series in a post titled Mystery Woman.
This object was
donated by
John Pierpont Morgan.
It is credited Gift of John Pierpont Morgan.
- Hanging, Binary Traces: Kay
- cotton.
- Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund.
- 2007-33-1
- Poster, Blowing in the Mind/Mister Tambourine Man
- lithograph on wove paper.
- Gift of Sara and Marc Benda.
- 2009-12-25
- Book, Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far
- digitally color printed and die-cut cardboard cover with 15 digitally color....
- Gift of Stefan Sagmeister.
- 2011-34-6
Our curators have highlighted 9 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:
- Tunic Fragment With Clavus Bands (Egypt)
- warp: s-spun, z-twisted 2-ply linen; wefts: s-spun linen, s-spun wool.
- Gift of John Pierpont Morgan.
- 1902-1-21
- Poster, John Lennon
- offset lithograph on white wove paper.
- Gift of Various Donors.
- 1981-29-511
- Souvenir Ribbon Portrait, Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1650) by Diego...
- silk.
- Gift of Lisa Taylor.
- 1978-175-1
Its dimensions are
H x W: 15.3 x 14.6 cm (6 x 5 3/4 in.)
Cite this object as
Square (Egypt); wool; H x W: 15.3 x 14.6 cm (6 x 5 3/4 in.); Gift of John Pierpont Morgan; 1902-1-72
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Maira Kalman Selects.
