Cuff Band with a Bust of a Female in the Metropolitna Museum of Art, January 2011

Cuff Band with Bust of a Female

Object Name: Fragment

Date: 7th–9th century

Geography: Egypt

Culture: Coptic

Medium: Linen, wool; tapestry weave

Dimensions: H. 3 1/8 in. (8 cm) W. 9 3/4 in. (24.7 cm)

Classification: Textiles

Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1909

Accession Number: 09.50.969

Label:

The five-part design of this cuff band became popular in the sixth century and is found on garments of both silk and tapestry weave.

At center the bust of a woman, probably a personification, fills a roundel; she wears a colorful, ornamented tunic. To either side a vine scroll with birds and gazelles fills the double registers. The border of the band is formed by a series of interlocking leaves, heavily outlined in black - a frequently occurring motif in early Islamic art. The juxtaposition of highly stylized vegetal forms (the leaf border and the vine scroll separating the double registers) and flattened, two-dimensional figures (the woman's upper body) with more rounded, naturalistic forms (her head and the surrounding animals) is characteristic of art produced from the sixth to the eighth century.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/445660