Name of Object:

Silk textile with geometric pattern

Location:

London, England, United Kingdom

Holding Museum:

Victoria and Albert Museum

About Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Date of Object:

Hegira 8th–9th / AD 14th–15th century

Museum Inventory Number:

1312–1864

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Woven silk textile.

Dimensions:

Length 56 cm, width 47.5 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Nasrid

Provenance:

Spain.

Description:

A silk textile with a lampas weave, satin ground and weft-faced tabby pattern. Yellow strap-work bands on a red background create a dazzling geometric interlace design in which eight-pointed stars figure prominently. Other colours, such as pink, green, and a silvery blue, are used to create contrasts and highlights. Textiles like this one were made in the Nasrid period in southern Spain and North Africa. They continued to be valued throughout Europe long after the fall of the Nasrid dynasty; this particular example was hanging behind a statue of the Virgin Mary in Florence, Italy as late as the 19th century.

A silk textile woven with an elaborate geometric pattern based on eight-pointed stars. Textiles like this were woven in southern Spain and North Africa during the Nasrid period. This example may have served as a hanging to enliven an architectural setting.

How date and origin were established:

Comparison with other Spanish and North African textiles.

How Object was obtained:

Received from Dr Bock in 1864.

How provenance was established:

The Nasrids ruled in Spain.

Selected bibliography:

Arts Council of Great Britain, The Arts of Islam, London, 1976, p.81, cat. no. 18.

Citation of this web page:

Barry Wood "Silk textile with geometric pattern" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;uk;Mus02;5;en

Prepared by: Barry WoodBarry Wood

Barry Wood is Curator (Islamic Gallery Project) in the Asian Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He studied history of art at Johns Hopkins University and history of Islamic art and architecture at Harvard University, from where he obtained his Ph.D. in 2002. He has taught at Harvard, Eastern Mediterranean University, the School of Oriental and African Studies, and the Courtauld Institute of Art. He has also worked at the Harvard University Art Museums and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. He has published on topics ranging from Persian manuscripts to the history of exhibitions.
Copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: UK2 05