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Fragment of a wall hanging with a servant opening a curtain
Late Roman or Early Byzantine
Late Roman or Early Byzantine
400-550
Object Place: Mediterranean (Eastern)
Medium/Technique
Linen (undyed) and wool (dyed), tapestry
Dimensions
188 x 93.5 cm (74 x 36 13/16 in.)
Credit Line
Charles Potter Kling Fund
Accession Number57.180
ClassificationsTextiles
This is one section of a larger wall hanging or curtain (note the small section of an adjoining arch on the upper right). A doorkeeper pulls back a curtain for the entrance of a dignitary. His costume of a knee-length green tunic with yellow vertical bands and shoulder roundels, jeweled belt, and red leggings with sandals and his short blond hair identify him as a barbarian guard of the late Roman and early Byzantine courts. The arch and columns are decorated with foliage including a lush festoon of fruits in the arch.
DescriptionFragment of a wall hanging with a columnar arcade showing a doorkeeper/guard (in Latin, the ostiarius/velarius) drawing a colorful curtain. With his short blond hair, a neck collar with an amulet and an attire of a knee-length green tunic with yellow vertical bands (clavi) and shoulder roundels, jeweled belt, and red leggings with sandals he resembles barbarian guards of the Late Roman and Early Byzantine courts.
The columns of the tall arcade have bases and capitals decorated with acanthus leaves and shafts covered with foliate garlands twisted into rope pattern (guilloche); the arch is festooned with fruits; a small section of an adjoining arch survives on the right. The fragments are surviving decorative tapestry components of what was originally much larger linen wall hanging.
Technique: ground of very fine linen in plain weave; design components (arcade, figure, curtain) in tapestry weave (linen warp and very fine dyed wool and undyed linen weft). Woven with warps perpendicular to the design.
The columns of the tall arcade have bases and capitals decorated with acanthus leaves and shafts covered with foliate garlands twisted into rope pattern (guilloche); the arch is festooned with fruits; a small section of an adjoining arch survives on the right. The fragments are surviving decorative tapestry components of what was originally much larger linen wall hanging.
Technique: ground of very fine linen in plain weave; design components (arcade, figure, curtain) in tapestry weave (linen warp and very fine dyed wool and undyed linen weft). Woven with warps perpendicular to the design.
Provenance1957, sold by Melanie (Mrs. Paul) Mallon, Paris, to the MFA. (Accession Date: March 14, 1957)