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Fragment with crowned lions, palmettes, and escutcheons
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Pairs of yellow lions are framed beneath arches formed by elaborate green leaves in a sumptuous repeated pattern. The city of Granada in southern Spain, where the Alhambra palace stood, continued to be a major center for silk production and commerce through the 1500s. Because the upside-down shields contain no Arabic inscriptions, it was probably made after the fall of the last Muslim sultan to the Christian King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1492.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineFragment with crowned lions, palmettes, and escutcheons, 1400s-1500s. Spain, Granada. Silk: lampas weave; overall: 54.3 x 27.5 cm (21 3/8 x 10 13/16 in.); mounted: 64.5 x 37.1 cm (25 3/8 x 14 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1944.240
