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Source Description
Within the elaborate roundel, a bearded man with a belted tunic strangles a lion in each hand. Gold thread shimmers on their heads and his hands. In the inscription band across the top, an Arabic word has been written with mirror-image symmetry. It can be read as <em>al-yumn</em>, primarily translated as <em>prosperity</em>. <br><br>The central motif of this renowned silk is a pre- Islamic Persian symbol of royal power. Both Muslims and Christians throughout the Iberian Peninsula admired such textiles. Members of the Catholic clergy incorporated it into a dalmatic—a long ceremonial tunic. It was found in the late 1800s in the tomb of Saint Bernard Calvo, Bishop of Vich (1180–1243).
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
127460
label
Fragment with Lion Strangler from a Dalmatic of Saint Bernard Calvo
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
127460
contentType
object
title
Fragment with Lion Strangler from a Dalmatic of Saint Bernard Calvo
description
Within the elaborate roundel, a bearded man with a belted tunic strangles a lion in each hand. Gold thread shimmers on their heads and his hands. In the inscription band across the top, an Arabic word has been written with mirror-image symmetry. It can be read as <em>al-yumn</em>, primarily translated as <em>prosperity</em>. <br><br>The central motif of this renowned silk is a pre- Islamic Persian symbol of royal power. Both Muslims and Christians throughout the Iberian Peninsula admired such textiles. Members of the Catholic clergy incorporated it into a dalmatic—a long ceremonial tunic. It was found in the late 1800s in the tomb of Saint Bernard Calvo, Bishop of Vich (1180–1243).
date
1200–1243
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q60755259
genreSpecific
Textile
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 43.8 x 39.7 cm (17 1/4 x 15 5/8 in.); Mounted: 53 x 49.8 cm (20 7/8 x 19 5/8 in.)
cul
Spain, Almeria
accession
1950.146
Source extras
tec
Silk and gold thread: lampas, taqueté, and plain-weave variant
tombstone
Fragment with Lion Strangler from a Dalmatic of Saint Bernard Calvo, 1200–1243. Spain, Almeria. Silk and gold thread: lampas, taqueté, and plain-weave variant; overall: 43.8 x 39.7 cm (17 1/4 x 15 5/8 in.); mounted: 53 x 49.8 cm (20 7/8 x 19 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1950.146
collection
T - Islamic
inscriptions
inscription
the inscription (incorrectly written) appears to read "al-'amir" (command, i.e. authority) [alternately retrograde and vice versa].
citations
citation
Shepherd, Dorothy G. "A Twelfth-Century Hispano-Islamic Silk." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 38, no. 3 (1951): 59-62.
page_number
p. 59-62
url
www.jstor.org/stable/25141697.
citation
Shepherd, Dorothy. "Another Silk from the Tomb of Saint Bernard Calvo." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art </em>38, no. 4 (April 1951): 74-75.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 74
citation
Shepherd, Dorothy G. "A Dated Hispano-Islamic Silk." <em>Ars Orientalis</em> 2 (1957): 373-82.
page_number
p. 373-82
url
www.jstor.org/stable/4629043.
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook.</em> Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 119
citation
Shepherd, Dorothy. "Two Medieval Silks from Spain." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art </em>45, no. 1 (January 1958): 3-7.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 4
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 218
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 218
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 275
citation
Brett, Michael, and Werner Forman. The Moors: Islam in the West. London: Orbis Pub, 1980.
page_number
p. 21
citation
Ettinghausen, Richard, Oleg Grabar, and Sheila Blair. <em>The art and architecture of Islam, 650-1250</em>. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England; New York: Penguin Books, 1987.
page_number
p. 161, fig. 140
citation
Mackie, Louise W. <em>Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century</em>. Cleveland; New Haven: Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2015.
page_number
Reproduced: P 175, fig. 5.6; Mentioned: P. 174, 177
citation
Akin, Esra. <em>Muthanna / History, Theory, and Aesthetics</em>. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2020.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 139, fig. 5.9
creditline
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 06:33:47.897000
sourceId
127460
dept
Textiles
coll
T - Islamic
med
Silk and gold thread: lampas, taqueté, and plain-weave variant
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
825be95da428c2c6