This item has been added to the Database within the Explore Islamic Art Collections project. Information is available in: English, German, Arabic.

Name of Object:

Coronation mantle

Location:

Vienna, Austria

Holding Museum:

Kunsthistorisches Museum

About Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Date of Object:

AD 1133/1134

Museum Inventory Number:

WS XIII/14

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Samite, silk, gold, pearls, enamel, filigree, precious stones, tablet weave

Dimensions:

Height: 146cm, Width: 345cm

Period / Dynasty:

Palermo, royal workshop

Provenance:

Italy

Description:

The precious mantle embroidered with gold, pearls and cloisonné-enamelled plaques was part of the set of robes used at the coronations of the kings and emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. The semicircular edge of the mantle is decorated with a gold-embroidered kufic inscription. It reveals that the mantle was produced in AH 528/ AD 1133/34 during the reign of the Norman king Roger II of Sicily (AD 1095–1154) in the royal workshops in Palermo where among others Arabic artisans worked.
Ancient motifs are depicted on the surface of the semicircular mantle: to both sides of a palm-tree (representing the tree of life) a lion triumph over a camel, which has a saddle and bridle and has thus been domesticated.

How date and origin were established:

Art historical and historical analysis (style criticism, archive and inventory research)

How Object was obtained:

Made for king Roger II of Sicily as part of the Norman treasure transferred by heritage to the Hohenstaufen and finally used as coronation mantle of the kings and emperors of the Holy Roman Empire.

How provenance was established:

Archive and inventory research

Selected bibliography:

Bauer, Rotraud, "Der Mantel Rogers II. und die siculo-normannischen Gewänder aus den königlichen Hofwerkstätten in Palermo“, in Wilfred Seipel (ed), Nobiles Officinae. Die königlichen Hofwerkstätten zu Palermo zur Zeit der Normannen und Staufer im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert. Ausstellungskatalog (Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien), Milan/Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum, 2004: 115–123.
Schmitz-von Ledebur, Katja, "Die Krönungsgewänder aus den palermitanischen Hofwerkstätten – zu den jüngsten epigraphischen und naturwissenschaftlichen Untersuchungen“, in Annemarie Stauffer (ed), Textile Kostbarkeiten staufischer Herrscher. Werkstätten – Bilder – Funktionen. Tagungsband zum internationalen Kolloquium im Rahmen der Ausstellung „Die Staufer und Italien“ am 20. und 21. Januar 2011 in den Reiss-Engelhorn- Museen Mannheim, Studien zur internationalen Architektur- und Kunstgeschichte 99, Petersberg: Imhof, 2014: 12–25.
Seipel, Wilfred (ed), Masterpieces of the Secular Treasury, Milan/Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum, 2008: 58–60.

Citation of this web page:

Katja Schmitz-von Ledebur "Coronation mantle" in Explore Islamic Art Collections. Museum With No Frontiers, 2026.
https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;at;Mus22;44;en

Prepared by: Katja Schmitz-von Ledebur
Copyedited by: Liz Cooper

MWNF Working Number: AT2 44