Textile Fabrics / A Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Church-vestments, Dresses, Silk Stuffs, Needlework and Tapestries, forming that Section of the Museum

by Daniel Rock

8289.

Piece of Silk and Gold Tissue; the ground, lilac; the pattern, green and white, of flowers, beneath which couch two animals, and under them stand two eagles. Italian or Sicilian, late 14th century. 15½ inches by 15¼ inches.

One of those well-balanced designs thrown off so freely by the looms of Italy and Sicily during the whole of the 14th century. What those two animals collared, couchant and addorsed regardant, may be meant for it is hard to imagine. Rays, like those from the sun, dart down beneath these dog-like creatures, and looking upward to those beams stand two eagles. Some of the flowers and the two animals are wrought in gold.