Rosette
4th-5th century
Description
Red rosette with yellow center and green details. Green lines separate the flower into four heart-shaped petals. A plain linen ground is visible around the edges. This textile has warps of undyed linen and wefts of dyed wool. The warps are doubled up in this tapestry fragment, but would likely have been regrouped in the areas of plain/tabby weave that would have undoubtedly surrounded this rosette in the complete textile. Red rosettes divided into four heart-shaped petals by a green cross, like this one, were favorite design elements in Late Antiquity around the Eastern Mediterranean, and can be found in floor mosaics as well as textiles. Such rosettes are often sprinkled throughout the plain linen ground of large decorative hangings, furnishings, and shawls.
Dimensions
10.16 cm (4 in.)
Related Artworks
View MoreWool and linen, tapestry weave set into fabric of linen loops
5th-6th centuryByzantineCut silk velvet with panel: plain woven linen; silk embroidery including or nué
EuropeanSilk and metallic yarns, brocaded (filé and frisé)
18th centuryItalian
Fiber
20th centuryGermanInk on silk
20th centuryAustrianSilk in 'kesi' tapestry weave, selected elements woven with metallic silver threads
19th centuryChineseTextile fibers
20th centuryPersianWarps: undyed white cotton, 2 Z spun S plied. 34 warps per decimeter. Wefts: wool, Z spun; varied pairs and singles per shot. Extremely eccentric wefts, supplementary wefts for broceaded ornaments. Weft color: blue (heavily abrashed), red (heavily abrashed), green (probably indigo sulfonic, heavily abrashed), yellow, undyed white, light purply brown, corrosive brown, genuine purple/aubergine. Both selvedges: return wefting. Top and bottom: between 8 and 11 warps in a knotted fringe.
19th centuryTurkish