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Source Description
This silk is woven with horizontal rows of incompleted ovals, each containing a double-headed eagle grasping lions with its talons. It belongs to a group of Spanish silks that emulated the great silks being produced at that time in Byzantium. During the 11th and 12th centuries, Spanish weavers not only drew freely upon Byzantine and Near Eastern models for their designs, but at times went so far as to create outright forgeries. This is one of several textiles found in the tomb of St. Bernard Calvo, Bishop of Vich in Spain, who died in 1243.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
129192
label
Samite fragments with double-headed eagles, from the tomb of Saint Bernard Calvo
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
129192
contentType
object
title
Samite fragments with double-headed eagles, from the tomb of Saint Bernard Calvo
description
This silk is woven with horizontal rows of incompleted ovals, each containing a double-headed eagle grasping lions with its talons. It belongs to a group of Spanish silks that emulated the great silks being produced at that time in Byzantium. During the 11th and 12th centuries, Spanish weavers not only drew freely upon Byzantine and Near Eastern models for their designs, but at times went so far as to create outright forgeries. This is one of several textiles found in the tomb of St. Bernard Calvo, Bishop of Vich in Spain, who died in 1243.
date
1200–1243
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q60750099
genreSpecific
Textile
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 118 x 165 cm (46 7/16 x 64 15/16 in.)
cul
probably Byzantium
accession
1951.92
Source extras
tec
samite: silk
tombstone
Samite fragments with double-headed eagles, from the tomb of Saint Bernard Calvo, 1200–1243. Probably Byzantium. Samite: silk; overall: 118 x 165 cm (46 7/16 x 64 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1951.92
collection
T - Islamic
citations
citation
Shepherd, Dorothy G. "The Third Silk from the Tomb of Saint Bernard Calvo." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 39, no. 1 (1952): 13-14.
page_number
p. 13-14
citation
New York University. Spanish Medieval Art. Loan Exhibition in Honor of Dr. Walter W.S. Cook. 1954.
page_number
p. 21, no. 66
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. 118
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
Ettinghausen, Richard, Oleg Grabar, and Sheila Blair. The art and architecture of Islam, 650-1250. 1987.
page_number
p. 162, fig. 141
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. 177, fig. 5.8; Mentioned: P. 177, 180
creditline
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 06:40:25.282000
sourceId
129192
dept
Textiles
coll
T - Islamic
med
samite: silk
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
2ea4c44ce61dd671