The Lion Strangler
date: label: Date
content: early–mid-12th century
notes: label: Description
content: Fragment of woven silk with large tangent roundels. Each roundel contains a symmetrical design of a bearded man strangling a lion in each arm. A small animal is under each lion's feet and a pair of small birds appear between the strangler's feet. The roundel frame consists of confronted griffons with pearl guard bands.
label: Description
content: The ornament in the interspaces consists of three concentric 8-pointed stars surrounded by eight radiating plant forms (pointed decorative trees alternating with scrolls terminating in palmettes).
label: Description
content: At the bottom of the piece, a horizontal band of ornamented Kufic script repeats (upside down) written normally and in reverse with guilloche guard bands.
label: Description
content: In dark green and crimson on cream ground fading into yellow in some areas. Face, hands, feet, belt disks of lion strangler, and heads of lions are brocaded with cream silk wound with gilded vellum.
place: label: made in
content: Spain
setName: label: See more items in
content: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Collection
label: See more items in
content: Textiles Department
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of John Pierpont Morgan
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 1902-1-220
objectType: label: Type
content: woven textiles
label: Object Name
content: Fragment
label: Type
content: Fragment
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Medium: silk, gilded vellum with silk core Technique: two integrated plain weave structures (lampas) Label: silk and metallic lampas
label: Dimensions
content: H x W: 49.3 x 52.7 cm (19 7/16 x 20 3/4 in.)