Because many textiles made by early Egyptians were preserved in arid tombs, a substantial number of these fabrics have survived in remarkably good condition. This striking portion of a wall hanging depicts a figure standing beneath a colonnaded, arched opening. With raised arms, which perhaps once held candelabrum, he wears a traditional tunic with clavic bands (the narrow strips extending down from the shoulders, on the front and back, to the waist or hem). This woven piece is distinguished by its large size, imposing composition, and brilliant, unfaded shades of red, green, blue, brown, and yellow. The figure’s commanding frontality, solemn expression, and animated side glance, together with the composition’s bold lines and vivid colors, relate this fragment to hauntingly realistic portrait icons. Also suggestive of icons is the three-dimensional appearance of the warrior’s face and legs and the columns—an effect much easier to achieve in painting than in weaving. Woven of indigenous materials, this hanging is composed of linen warps and wool and linen wefts that create an uncut pile against a plain-weave foundation, a fabric surface less common in Byzantine textiles than the tapestry weave.
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.
Linen and wool, plain weave with weft uncut pile and embroidered linen pile formed by variations of back and stem stitches
Dimensions
136.5 × 88.3 cm (53 3/4 × 34 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Grace R. Smith Textile Endowment
Reference Number
1982.1578
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.
The Art Institute of Chicago Annual Report (1982/1983): 18, fig. 23 (ill.).
Christa C. Mayer Thurman, “Some Major Textile Acquisitions from Europe and Egypt,” The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, 11, no. I (Fall 1984): 52-69, fig. 1 (ill.).
“An Important Acquisition. The Art Institute of Chicago,” Hali Magazine, 7, no. 2, issue 26 (April/May/June 1985).
Christa Mayer Thurman, Textiles in The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1992), 10-11, 143 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1993), 223 (ill.).
“Portion of Hanging with Warrior,” in The Essential Guide (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), 318 (ill.).
Karen Manchester, Recasting the Past: Collecting and Presenting Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2012), 102-103, cat. 25 (ill.).
Gudrun Bühl, Sumru Belger Krody, and Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, Woven Interiors: Furnishing Early Medieval Egypt, exh. cat. (Washington, DC: The Textile Museum, 2019), 60-61, cat. 23 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Elizabeth F. Cheney and Agnes Allerton Textile Galleries, “Gift, Bequest and Purchase: A Selection of Textile Acquisitions from 1982–1987,” Mar. 18–Aug. 14, 1989.
Art Institute of Chicago, Elizabeth F. Cheney and Agnes Allerton Textile Galleries, “European Textile Masterpieces from Coptic Times Through the 19th Century,” Sept. 27, 1989–Jan. 22, 1990.
Art Institute of Chicago, Elizabeth F. Cheney and Agnes Allerton Textile Galleries, “Textile Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago’s Collection,” Feb. 17–May 2, 1993.
Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Gallery 153, Apr. 7–July 13, 1994.
Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery 141, “Devotion and Splendor: Medieval Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” Sept. 20, 2004–Jan. 4, 2005.
Washington DC, George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum (organized with Dumbarton Oaks), “Woven Interiors: Furnishing Early Medieval Egypt,” Aug. 31, 2019-Jan. 5, 2020), cat.
Private collection, Switzerland [this and the following according to a report from Edward Merrin Gallery, Oct. 20, 1982; copy in curatorial object file]. Private collection, midwest United States; consigned with unknown dealer, United States; sold to Edward H. Merrin Gallery, New York, July 1982 [letter from E. Merrin, Sept. 22, 1982; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to the Art Institue of Chicago, 1982.
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.
