Fragment with white silk, warp twill ground patterned with design of palmettes in gold-metallic yarn, salmon-color silk accents.

The double-headed eagle became the primary symbol of the state during the late Byzantine centuries and was also adopted for liturgical use. This huge eagle was probably used as an altar cloth or as a podea, a skirt hung beneath an icon. The inscription, which connects the owner with distinguished imperial dynasties, exaggerated the claims of a pretender to the patriarchal throne.

Ground: faded bluish grey warp twill, (alternate warps paired) tied by greyish blue weft.  Design: symmetrical trees to which pairs of animals are chained; cartouches with simulated Arabic letters, and pairs of birds, woven with tarnished gold weft (gilded skin wound on line), tied with a fine neutral silk weft. Worn.

Deep cream colored linen ground. Central figure of Christ on the Cross flanked at left by the Virgin Mary and two attendant women and a group of soldiers on horseback, at the right by St. John the Evangelist and a group of soldiers, some on horseback. Background of foliate scrolls, worked with polychrome silks and metallic threads in slip, stem, knot and couching stitches. Most of metallic thread now disappeared, much of silk thread now disappeared.

Addorsed dolphins in metal threads on a green ground with small scale floral and palmette forms. Horizontals bands of metal threads at the bottom indicate that this fragment came from the bottom of the fabric.

1376 / 1400, Italy

1376 / 1400, Italy

Description