Tunic Fragments

This piece assembles several now-disconnected fragments of what was once an integral tunic. The fragments include one nearly complete side featuring clavi, shoulder squares, and neck decoration; two sleeve bands, one connected to the remaining textile; and the neckline and partially preserved clavi of the tunic’s other side. The decorative motifs are rendered in tapestry weave on a plain-weave ground in linen in beige and dark purple-brown with spots of yellow-orange. The clavi and sleevebands feature lions, rabbits, and leopards interspersed with stylized vine motifs. Beneath the reinforced necklines, four seminude male and female figures are depicted dancing in a series of arcades. A few hold musical instruments, and the male figure at far left bears a staff, probably a thyrsus, associated with Dionysos.

Depictions of Dionysiac figures are common in both dress and furnishing textiles from late antiquity. Their festive iconography—dancing and music-playing men and women, frolicking putti, fanciful animals—is immediately recognizable (see especially BZ.1948.7, BZ.1953.2.68, BZ.1953.2.84, BZ.1953.2.95, BZ.1973.1, BZ.1973.2, BZ.1973.7). Such imagery evoked the festivities associated with the worship of Dionysos, but it also may have been intended simply to reflect fruitfulness and bounty. The popularity of such motifs on textiles may be due to the aspirations of wearers and owners, who wished to adorn themselves and their homes with the festive, healthful, and exotic iconography associated with this enduringly popular deity.Discussed by T. K. Thomas, “Material Meaning in Late Antiquity,” in Designing Identity: The Power of Textiles in Late Antiquity, ed. T. K. Thomas (New York, 2016), 46–48. A fragmentary tunic found in Antinoe, now in France at the Musée Labenche, features similar designs as the present tunic.Brive-la-Gaillarde, Musée Labenche d’Art et d’Histoire, 87.83.58: Y. Lintz and M. Coudert, eds., Antinoé: Momies, textiles, céramiques et autres antiques; Envois de l’État et dépôts du musée du Louvre de 1901 à nos jours (Paris, 2013), 263, no. 83.

—Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, May 2019