A COPTIC DECORATED TABULA FRAGMENT Egypt, 5th-7th century
A COPTIC DECORATED TABULA FRAGMENT
Egypt, 5th-7th century
A tabula fragment is a piece of a rectangular or square decorative panel used in Late Antique and Coptic textiles, especially on tunics. It usually represents the central panel of the tunic, typically flanked by vertical decorative bands (clavi) on the shoulders. This fragment features refined decoration that is highly reminiscent of the geometric and classical patterns commonly found in Byzantine mosaics; textiles of this type are believed to have been made by Copts (Christian Egyptians) as well as other weavers across the Byzantine Empire, the patterns and motifs found in Coptic and Byzantine textiles went on to shape the visual vocabulary of the early Islamic period.
Total including frame 77.2cm x 68cm
For a similar example:
Louvre Museum, Acc. no. H 175.
Literature:
Landry, W., Anne-Laure Rameau, and Abigaëlle Richard, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Collection of Mediterranean Antiquities, Vol. 4: The Coptic Textiles. Leiden: Brill, 2019.
Lee Carroll, D., Looms and Textiles of the Copts: First Millennium Egyptian Textiles in the Carl Austin Rietz Collection. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1988.
Thomas,T., Textiles from Medieval Egypt, AD 300–1300 in the Collection of the Ashmolean Museum. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2001
A COPTIC DECORATED TABULA FRAGMENT
Egypt, 5th-7th century
A tabula fragment is a piece of a rectangular or square decorative panel used in Late Antique and Coptic textiles, especially on tunics. It usually represents the central panel of the tunic, typically flanked by vertical decorative bands (clavi) on the shoulders. This fragment features refined decoration that is highly reminiscent of the geometric and classical patterns commonly found in Byzantine mosaics; textiles of this type are believed to have been made by Copts (Christian Egyptians) as well as other weavers across the Byzantine Empire, the patterns and motifs found in Coptic and Byzantine textiles went on to shape the visual vocabulary of the early Islamic period.
Total including frame 77.2cm x 68cm
For a similar example:
Louvre Museum, Acc. no. H 175.
Literature:
Landry, W., Anne-Laure Rameau, and Abigaëlle Richard, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Collection of Mediterranean Antiquities, Vol. 4: The Coptic Textiles. Leiden: Brill, 2019.
Lee Carroll, D., Looms and Textiles of the Copts: First Millennium Egyptian Textiles in the Carl Austin Rietz Collection. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1988.
Thomas,T., Textiles from Medieval Egypt, AD 300–1300 in the Collection of the Ashmolean Museum. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2001
