Harvard Art Museums > 1931.39: Textile Fragment: Duck and Flowers Textile Arts Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Textile Fragment: Duck and Flowers , 1931.39,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Apr 18, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/213117. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Identification and Creation Object Number 1931.39 Title Textile Fragment: Duck and Flowers Classification Textile Arts Work Type textile Date c. 500-599 CE Places Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Africa, Egypt (Ancient) Period Byzantine period, Early Culture Byzantine Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/213117 Location Location Level 3, Room 3620, University Study Gallery View this object's location on our interactive map Physical Descriptions Medium Wool Technique Woven, tapestry weave Dimensions 12 x 11.5 cm (4 3/4 x 4 1/2 in.) Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Charles Bain Hoyt Accession Year 1931 Object Number 1931.39 Division Asian and Mediterranean Art Contact am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Descriptions Description Against a red background, a duck woven from undyed wool with red details walks along a slightly sloping, stylized ground line. The duck is framed by a thin square line of undyed wool. Blue, green, and yellow buds and rosettes form a wide border surrounding the duck and fill the remainder of the red background. The repeating block motif below the ground line echoes the dentil border surrounding the red square. A black line at top of the fragment hints at the textile's additional decoration that is now lost. The duck’s red feathers and eye are executed in the flying shuttle technique of supplementary weft wrapping. In the areas of the six colored rosettes, three supplementary weft floats are introduced to create the diagonal and vertical lines separating the petals. These wefts then form a tapestry weave of 10 picks making up the centers of the flowers, and then again become supplementary floats over the tapestry woven petals. Commentary Ducks and nile-geese have long been motifs signaling the fertility and abundance of nature in Egypt, since water birds inhabited the Nile marshes and represented the new life that arrived with the annual Nile inundation. This association is enhanced by the bright colors of the textile and the pairing of the duck with blooming flowers. Staining in places suggests this textile was reused in a burial. Publication History Ioli Kalavrezou, Byzantine Women and Their World, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2003), p. 180/fig. 96 Exhibition History Byzantine Women and Their World, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/25/2002 - 04/28/2003 32Q: 3740 Egyptian, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/21/2016 - 06/01/2017 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/20/2024 - 05/05/2024 Verification Level This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
