Fragment of Velvet

CC0 Public Domain Designation

Mid-15th-early 16th century

Italy

Status: On View, Gallery 58
Department: Textiles

Title: Fragment of Velvet
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 1450–1500
Medium: Silk, warp-float faced 3:1 twill weave with weft-float faced 1:3 twill interlacings of secondary binding warps and gilt-metal-strip-wrapped silk supplementary facing wefts; supplementary warps forming pile-on-pile cut velvet with supplementary brocading wefts forming weft loops in areas with voided velvet
Dimensions: 24.5 × 24.1 cm (9 5/8 × 9 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Martin A. Ryerson through the Antiquarian Society
Reference Number: 1895.773
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/1995/manifest.json

Else Regensteiner, Geometric Design in Weaving
(West Chester, PA: Schiffer Publishing, c. 1986), 36, pl. 2-18.
Sarah Molina and Cybele Tom, “Representing and Re-Presenting Textiles,” 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), 116, fig. 1 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, Sumptuous Velvets from the Permanent Collection, Mar. 1–June 1, 1980.
Art Institute of Chicago, Elizabeth F. Cheney and Agnes Allerton Textile Galleries, Renaissance Velvets and Silks, Dec. 18, 2002–Apr. 13, 2003.
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.

Martin A. Ryerson (1856-1932), Chicago; given through the Antiquarian Society to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1895.

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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.