An Ottoman liturgical embroidered wall hanging, Turkey, dated 1872
Auction Closed
October 25, 04:59 PM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
worked with polychrome silk threads and metal-thread highlights on a red ground, depicting the Holy Trinity with the father bending over a wing-shaped composition of angels, the Holy Spirit under the form of a white dove, and infant Jesus flanked by Joseph and the Virgin Mary on a rocky landscape with a seated lamb at the forefront, framed with two bands of scrolling grape vines and leaves
147 by 238cm.
inscriptions:two couplets in Arabic mentioning 'Francis son of Rahiba' and the prophet Ilyas (Elias); invocation to the Holy Trinity; the single word for ‘angel’, and the date: 'The Christian year 1874 and restored, the year 1927.'
Even after Islam became the official state religion of the Ottoman Empire, the imperial textile workshops in Bursa and Istanbul maintained their production of dazzling silks adorned with Christian imagery. These exquisite textiles were subsequently exported to foreign countries or presented as gifts to member of the Ottoman elite (please refer to C.A. Stewart, Six-Winged Angels and Other Christian Imagery in Arts from the Ottoman Empire, Metropolitan Museum of Art Online blog, 2015). The figures shown on the present textile are represented in a style similar to those on an ophomorion fragment from the late seventeenth/early eighteenth century in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. no.17.120.108).
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