Skip to Content
Closed now, next open tomorrow. Closed now, next open tomorrow.

  • Mon 11–5
  • Tue–Wed Closed
  • Thu 11–8
  • Fri–Sun 11–5
  • The first hour of every day, 10–11 a.m., is reserved for member-only viewing.

Length of Woven Silk

A work made of silk, plain weave with plain interlacings of secondary binding warps and supplementary patterning wefts.
Public Domain

Image actions

  • A work made of silk, plain weave with plain interlacings of secondary binding warps and supplementary patterning wefts.

Date:

c. 1575–1625

Artist:

Italy, possibly Milan

About this artwork

This textile features leafy vines clasped by crowns encircling floral palmettes to create a continuous network. Notably, both the crowns and the palmettes reverse orientation from one row to the next, ensuring that the fabric would never appear upside-down, whether it was used as a wall covering, furniture upholstery, or even a garment.

Italian merchants bought Iranian raw silk in Bursa, at the western edge of the ancient trade route known as the Silk Road (in present-day Turkey). They sold the resulting goods to the Ottoman court in Istanbul. During the 1500s and 1600s, Ottoman sultans were avid consumers of luxury textiles from the Italian peninsula, buying more than Western European monarchs and the Roman Catholic Church.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Textiles

Title

Length of Woven Silk

Place

Italy (Object made in)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1575–1625

Medium

Silk, plain weave with plain interlacings of secondary binding warps and supplementary patterning wefts

Dimensions

171.1 × 53.5 cm (67 3/8 × 21 1/8 in.0 Repeat: 33.3 × 17.1 cm (13 × 6 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson

Reference Number

1937.1215c

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/179783/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

Share

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.
Learn more

Image actions

Share

Suggested Terms