Roundel (Orbiculus)

Accession number	BZ.1946.17
Attribution and Date	Egypt, 7th–9th c.
Measurements	H. (warp) 23.0 cm × W. (weft) 22.7 cm (9 1/16 × 8 15/16 in.)
Technique and Material	Tapestry weave in polychrome wool and undyed linen
Acquisition history	Dikran G. Kelekian (1868–1951), New York, until December 1946 (receipt dated January 3, 1947); Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC.

This roundel has been cut from a beige plain-weave ground, remains of which are visible just beyond the outer frame. The medallion depicts a lion attacking a bull in beige, red, yellow, light green, green, light blue, blue, light tan, and tan. The lion and bull are rendered with delicate shading and are set in a red ground filled with flowers, plants, and vines. Floral motifs along the border are rendered schematically; these motifs are framed on both sides by stepped borders of many hues.

Although woven in tapestry weave, the iconography and color scheme of this piece make clear reference to high-quality Byzantine silks. Five-color Byzantine silks, for example, often feature roundels with heart-shaped floral motifs and red grounds, and depict violent hunting scenes presided by Amazons, warriors, or imperial figures (see, for example, BZ.1934.1). Hunting iconography was presumably popular among elites as it represented the fierce will of the ruler and the abiding dominance of his reign.

Tapestry-woven imitations of silk are known from several collections. A piece in London depicts an emperor, possibly Heraclius, standing between bound prisoners and above a pair of hunting scenes.London, Victoria and Albert Museum, T.794-1919: H. C. Evans and B. Ratliff, eds., Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition, 7th–9th Century (New York, 2012), 15–16, no. 5. Presumably made for garments, the woolen pieces not only presented a more affordable variation, they also offered weavers freedom in arranging iconography as they willed: whereas silks tend on the whole to feature mirrored designs, tapestry-woven fragments are effectively free drawn, without the limitations of a mechanized drawloom.

A medallion with an identical design and coloration, though in a poorer state of preservation and not as finely woven, is held in Cleveland.Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.38, http://www.clevelandart.org/art/1969.38.

—Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, May 2019

Notes

Accession number	BZ.1946.17
Attribution and Date	Egypt, 7th–9th c.
Measurements	H. (warp) 23.0 cm × W. (weft) 22.7 cm (9 1/16 × 8 15/16 in.)
Technique and Material	Tapestry weave in polychrome wool and undyed linen
Acquisition history	Dikran G. Kelekian (1868–1951), New York, until December 1946 (receipt dated January 3, 1947); Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC.

Washington, DC, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Ornament: Fragments of Byzantine Fashion, September 10, 2019—January 5, 2020.

Accession number	BZ.1946.17
Attribution and Date	Egypt, 7th–9th c.
Measurements	H. (warp) 23.0 cm × W. (weft) 22.7 cm (9 1/16 × 8 15/16 in.)
Technique and Material	Tapestry weave in polychrome wool and undyed linen
Acquisition history	Dikran G. Kelekian (1868–1951), New York, until December 1946 (receipt dated January 3, 1947); Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC.

J. Beckwith, “Coptic Textiles,” Ciba Review 12, no. 133 (1959): 22–24.

M. Cramer, Koptische Buchmalerei (Recklinghausen, 1964), 52, fig. 58.

Dumbarton Oaks, Handbook of the Byzantine Collection (Washington, DC, 1967), 109, no. 367.

D. Thompson, “Catalogue of Textiles in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection” (unpublished catalogue, Washington, DC, 1976), no. 75.

S. M. Wagner, “The Impact of Silk in Ottonian and Salian Illuminated Manuscripts,” in Silk Roads, Other Roads: Proceedings of the Eighth Biennial Symposium of the Textile Society of America (Madison, WI, 2003), fig. 7.

Accession number	BZ.1946.17
Attribution and Date	Egypt, 7th–9th c.
Measurements	H. (warp) 23.0 cm × W. (weft) 22.7 cm (9 1/16 × 8 15/16 in.)
Technique and Material	Tapestry weave in polychrome wool and undyed linen
Acquisition history	Dikran G. Kelekian (1868–1951), New York, until December 1946 (receipt dated January 3, 1947); Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC.