Egypt, Coptic culture, ca. 4th to 11th century CE. A wonderful framed collection of 6 different textile fragments woven with dyed cotton threads of many hues. The first and largest piece is brown and cream colored with two registers featuring stylized foliate patterns. The central four fragments all feature stylized human figures, woven in a cream, red, and blue colored threads and set into a cream or brown background. The last is a white piece with red, yellow, blue, and green floral patterns that look embroidered rather than woven. Human figures seem to have been a favorite iconography for textiles, as seen here. These fragments are from Coptic funerary robes woven in the Fayuum area of Egypt. Size of largest textile piece: 7.5" L x 2.125" W (19 cm x 5.4 cm); size of frame: 23" L x 9.5" W x .875" H (58.4 cm x 24.1 cm x 2.2 cm)

Textiles were produced by Copts and other weavers throughout the Byzantine Empire; examples like these represent some of our oldest known decorated textiles. Coptic craftsmen drew design motifs from a wide variety of images relating to life in the Eastern Mediterranean: Greco-Roman myths, pastoral scenes from the Nile River, Syrian and Persian depictions of the hunt; and celebratory or monumental civic occasions; all of these combined to make a uniquely detailed and joyful artistic tradition.

Provenance: ex-Jones collection, Boulder, Colorado, USA; ex-private Saitama, Japan collection, acquired on the Japanese art and antique market

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#163343

All are fragments as shown. Discoloration and staining as expected with age. Tearing and fraying to peripheries. Motif on smallest piece is not easily indiscernible. All are mounted and stored in a modern frame. Some minor scuffs to the frame.