Palmettes and Birds from a Tunic or Curtain

500s–600s

Palmettes and Birds from a Tunic or Curtain, 500s–600s. Egypt or Syria, Byzantine or Islamic periods, 6th-7th Century. Silk; complementary weft-faced twill weave with inner warps (samite); overall: 31.1 x 14 cm (12 1/4 x 5 1/2 in.); mounted: 36.2 x 20.3 cm (14 1/4 x 8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1951.535 These elaborate patterns were woven on large, early looms known as drawlooms that automatically repeated designs across the width of the fabric, often in mirror-image symmetry.