Textiles & Costume
Nude Female Dancers from a Tunic
Textile
Details
- Author / creator
- Egypt or Syria, Umayyad period (661–750) or Abbasid period (750–1258)
- Object type
- Textile
- Date or period
- 700s
- Dimensions summary
- Overall: 15.5 × 14 cm; Mounted: 21.6 × 14 cm
- Place of origin
- Egypt or Syria
- Acquisition method
- Purchase
- Credit line
- Purchased with the Ashcombe City Council acquisitions budget, 1953
- Fibres
- Silk
- Structure
- Samite
About this object
Voluptuous females in sheer attire were not only depicted in contemporary wall paintings but also woven in lengths of silk fabric that were cut into squares to decorate linen tunics. These symmetrical female dancers, with anklets and long scarves draped around their shoulders, hold branches and pomegranates.
Materials and technique
Silk; complementary weft-faced twill weave with inner warps (samite)
