Piece of Silk and Cotton Tissue; ground, deep red mixed with green, blue, white, and gold; the pattern consists of loosely branched stems with large flower-heads, and monsters alternately blue and gold, bearing in their hands a white flower. Italian, late 14th century. 27½ inches by 9½ inches.
The so-called sphinxes in this piece are those monster figures often found in art-work during the middle ages, and are formed of a female head and waist joined on to the body of a lioness passant cowed, that is, with its tail hanging down between its legs. In this specimen may be detected an early form of the artichoke pattern, which afterwards became such a favourite.
8296.
Piece of Silk; ground, dark red; pattern, a yellow diapering of somewhat four-sided figures enclosing an ornament of a double ellipsis. South Spanish, 15th century. 10¾ inches by 7 inches.
8297.
Piece of Crimson Silk; pattern, in green, of open arabesque spread in wide divisions. Southern Spain, late 14th century. 18 inches by 7 inches.
The design of this valuable piece is very good, and must have had a pleasing effect. From the way in which the cross is introduced by combinations of the ornamentation and slight attempts at showing the letter M for Maria—the Blessed Virgin Mary, it would seem that it was the work of a Christian hand well practised in the Saracenic style of pattern-drawing.