{
"data": {
"id": 127924,
"accession_number": "1950.558",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Fragment with gold leaf lions, 1000s\u20131100s. Iran or Iraq, Seljuk period. Silk warp and cotton weft (mulham): plain weave; gold leaf, block printed; overall: 32.1 x 40 cm (12 5/8 x 15 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1950.558",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Fragment with gold leaf lions",
"creation_date": "1000s\u20131100s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1000,
"creation_date_latest": 1199,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Iran or Iraq, Seljuk period"
],
"technique": "Silk warp and cotton weft (mulham): plain weave; gold leaf, block printed",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Textiles",
"collection": "T - Islamic",
"type": "Textile",
"measurements": "Overall: 32.1 x 40 cm (12 5/8 x 15 3/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.321,
"height_inch": 12,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.625,
"width": 0.4,
"width_inch": 15,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.75
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "This textile belongs to a small group of printed and/or painted textiles made in Iran and Iraq during the 11th - 12th centuries. The design was printed on \"mulham\" (cloth having silk warps and cotton wefts) using several wooden blocks that were applied in at least seven steps. The lions, a popular motif in Seljuk art, are very similar to the lion incense burner exhibited in the case next to the carpet. Their long toes, typical of lions in works of art made in the eastern parts of Iran, suggest that this printed textile may have been made in the province of Khurasan.",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Dr. Emil Delmar [1876\u20131959], Budapest, Hungary, and New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?\u20131950",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1950\u2013",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "This is one of the comparatively few printed textiles with extensive use of costly gold to have survived from the medieval period in Iran or Iraq.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Gold was block-printed onto mulham cloth with figures of lions\u2014symbols of the royal hunt and imperial power. Gold lions adorned with collars and palmettes enliven squares on dark-brown and undyed mulham groups in a checkerboard layout. The pattern was printed with several blocks on the mulham surface. The process included drawing outlines with black ink and block printing with gold powder and dark-brown pigment, each mixed with a binding medium. The gold paint was flattened with rubbing, which created a good imitation of gold leaf.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79908341"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1950.558-fragment-with-gold-l"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 693",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n127"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 214",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n238"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 214",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n238"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 271",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n291"
},
{
"citation": "Mackie, Louise W. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century. Cleveland; New Haven: Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2015.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 161, fig. 4.34; Mentioned: P. 158",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "King, Anya H., \"Gilding Textiles and Printing Blocks in Tenth-Century Egypt,\" Journal of the American Oriental Society 140.2 (2020): pp. 455\u2013465.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 455\u2013456",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1950.558",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1950.558/1950.558_web.jpg",
"width": "1120",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "844298",
"filename": "1950.558_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1950.558/1950.558_print.jpg",
"width": "3400",
"height": "2710",
"filesize": "9191171",
"filename": "1950.558_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1950.558/1950.558_full.tif",
"width": "6010",
"height": "4790",
"filesize": "86397736",
"filename": "1950.558_full.tif"
}
},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 127924,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1950-12-28T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1000,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1000s\u20131100s",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Fragments of a Wood-Block Print"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 06:36:12.465000"
}
}