Woven Silk Fragment

CC0 Public Domain Designation

About 1930–50, imitation of a 10th- or 11th-century pattern

Iran

This woven-silk fragment depicts a ruler or nobleman from the Abbasid Caliphate that ruled the Middle East from about 750 to 1500. It and others like it were once purported to have been made under the caliphate’s reign in the 10th or 11th century. However, scholars and scientists since the 1950s have debated the origins of the entire corpus to which this fragment belongs, surmising that they are likely fakes, made to deliberately fool collectors who prized authentic textiles of this kind.

Status: On View, Gallery 58
Department: Textiles

Title: Woven Silk Fragment
Place: Iran (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.: c. 1930–1950
Medium: Silk, twill compound weave
Dimensions: 21.6 × 27.9 cm (8 1/2 × 11 in.)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Harold T. Martin, Mrs. Noah Van Cleef, and Mrs. Daniel Green
Reference Number: 1983.527
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/100488/manifest.json

Melinda Watt, “Fragmentary Understanding: Textiles in the Encyclopedic Museum,” in On Loss and Absence: Textiles of Mourning and Survival, eds. Isaac Facio, Nneka Kai, L Vinebaum, and Anne Wilson, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2025), 102, fig. 10 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, Elizabeth F. Cheney and Agnes Allerton Textile Galleries, On Loss and Absence: Textiles of Mourning and Survival, Sept. 6, 2025–Mar. 15, 2026, cat.

Woodruff, Los Angeles, by 1983 [reference no. 15384; this and the following according to Loewi-Robertson provenance archive document, 1989; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to Adolf Loewi (later Loewi-Robertson), 1983 [inventory no. 16999; incoming receipt RX13987, Mar. 23, 1983; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago.

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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.

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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.

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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.