Detail View: The AMICA Library: Brocaded Panel Fragment

The ogival lattice pattern of this luxury fabric is quite typical of Ottoman Turkish taste, as is the profusion of finely drawn tulips, rosebuds, irises, narcissi, and carnations adorning each gold-ground compartment. The gold bands forming the lattice hold scrolling vines and tulips. The purple ground of the fabric is uncommon, probably because of the costly nature of the purple dye, which was derived from murex shells. The rounded lower corners of this panel suggest that it was part of a chasuble. Several Russian chasubles made from sixteenth-century Ottoman brocaded silks belong to the Armory Museum at the Kremlin, Moscow. A number of other Christian vestments survive that were fashioned from Islamic fabrics or, in the case of one seventeenth-century Persian cope, woven in the requisite shape. Oriental textiles enjoyed enormous status in Europe for several centuries, as is evidenced by the wrapping of Christian reliquaries in Islamic silks in medieval times. Another piece of this fabric is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.