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Woman’s court robe (conteş)
Bucharest, Romania
The National Museum of Art of Romania
About The National Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest
Hegira 10th century / AD 16th century
10780 / Ţ59
Woven silk, silver and silver-gilt thread
Height: 151cm (from collar to hem on the back)
Ottoman
Bursa or Istanbul, Turkey
This seraser silk was discovered in the latter half of the nineteenth century in a monastery located in the historical region of Oltenia (southwestern Romania), probably at Bistriţa, where it was preserved as an ecclesiastical cope. A hundred years later, following ample restoration undertaken at the Museum, it regained its original form, namely that of a woman’s court robe. It can be assumed that the robe had been donated to the monastery by a boyar’s family, which testifies to the wealth and refinement of the Romanian aristocracy in the sixteenth century, given the fact that seraser silk was by far the most precious Ottoman textile, covered ‘from end to end’ with silver and silver-gilt thread. The robe features a design of large palmette garlands, outlined with green silk, each of which encloses a circular motif and a crescent. Between the garlands, circular motifs surrounding a star.
Stylistic analysis, comparison with related objects; technique
Transferred from the collection of the Commission on Historical Monuments in 1949.
Stylistic analysis
Atasoy, N., Denny, W. B., Mackie, L. W. and Tezcan, H., Ipek. Imperial Ottoman Silks and Velvets, London: Azimuth Editions, 2001: 259, fig. 179.
Lăzărescu, A., Arta Ţării Româneşti în secolele XIV-XVI, Bucharest: National Museum of Art of Romania, 2001: 127-128, cat. no. 49.
Nicolescu, C., Costumul de curte în Ţările Române (sec. XIV-XVIII), Bucharest: National Museum of Art of Romania, 1970: 35, cat. no. 4, fig. 11-14.
Mircea Dunca "Woman’s court robe (conteş)" in Explore Islamic Art Collections. Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;rm;Mus21;10;en
Prepared by: Mircea Dunca
MWNF Working Number: RO1 10
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