7036.
Silk Diapered, with a man wrestling with a lion repeated; ground, crimson, the diaper in various colours, and the waving borders in creamy white, edged black, and charged with crimson squares, and fruits crimson and deep green. Byzantine, 12th century. 15¾ inches by 12½ inches.
This is one among the known early productions of the loom, and therefore very valuable. The lion and man seem to be meant for Samson’s victory over that animal, though, for the sake of a pattern, the same two figures are repeated in such a way that they are in pairs and confronted. Samson’s dress is after the classic form, and he wears sandals, while a long narrow green scarf, fringed yellow, flutters from off his shoulder behind him; and the tawny lion’s mane is shown to fall in white and black locks, but in such a way that, at first sight, the black shading might be mistaken for the letters of some word. This stuff is figured by Dr. Bock in his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” t. i. pl. ii.