Curtain Panel with Design of Horizontal Bands of Geometric Patterns and Arabic Inscriptions in Kufic Script
- Culture
- Spanish
- Dynasty
- Nasrid dynasty, 1232–1492
- Date
- late 14th century
- Material
- Silk, lampas weave
- made in
- Alhambra, Granada, Granada province, Spain, Europe
- Classification
- Coverings & hangings, textiles
- Collection
- Islamic Art
- Current Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 40 5/8 × 14 5/8 in. (103.2 × 37.1 cm)
mount: 40 3/4 × 14 3/4 in. (103.5 × 37.5 cm) - Credit Line
- Museum Purchase
- Rights
- Public Domain
- Object Number
- 52:1939
NOTES
This silk panel preserves a riot of controlled color and design in two joined strips with twenty-one bands of pattern. Two horizontal friezes, consisting of nine bands each, separate the two large pattern fields of elaborate eight-pointed stars in a complicated arabesque ground. From the eighth century onward, Spanish weavers produced world-famous silks, continuing a tradition brought to Spain by Muslim conquerors.
Provenance
1929 or earlier - 1938
Herman A. Elsberg (1869–1938), New York, NY, USA [1]
1938 - 1939
Estate of Herman A. Elsberg [2]
1939 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, purchased from the estate of Herman A. Elsberg [3]
Notes:
[1] A bill of sale dated May 24, 1939 indicates that the panel was formerly in the collection of textile collector and designer Herman A. Elsberg [SLAM document files]. This object was lent by Elsberg to the exhibition "Spanish and Portuguese Textiles of the Thirteenth to Sixteenth Centuries" (December 11, 1929–January 12, 1930), Gallery 10, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, and published in Gertrude Underhill, "Textiles from Spain and Portugal, Thirteenth to Sixteenth Centuries," The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 16, no. 10 (December 1929), pp. 183–185 (see esp. textual description on p. 184) and p. 191 (halftone illustration).
[2] See note [1].
[3] Minutes of the Administrative Board of Control of the City Art Museum, May 18, 1939.
Herman A. Elsberg (1869–1938), New York, NY, USA [1]
1938 - 1939
Estate of Herman A. Elsberg [2]
1939 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, purchased from the estate of Herman A. Elsberg [3]
Notes:
[1] A bill of sale dated May 24, 1939 indicates that the panel was formerly in the collection of textile collector and designer Herman A. Elsberg [SLAM document files]. This object was lent by Elsberg to the exhibition "Spanish and Portuguese Textiles of the Thirteenth to Sixteenth Centuries" (December 11, 1929–January 12, 1930), Gallery 10, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, and published in Gertrude Underhill, "Textiles from Spain and Portugal, Thirteenth to Sixteenth Centuries," The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 16, no. 10 (December 1929), pp. 183–185 (see esp. textual description on p. 184) and p. 191 (halftone illustration).
[2] See note [1].
[3] Minutes of the Administrative Board of Control of the City Art Museum, May 18, 1939.
We regularly update records, which may be incomplete. If you have additional information, please contact us at provenance@slam.org.