Panel (Lamba Mpanjaka)
- Medium
- Silk, warp-faced plain weave with supplementary patterning warps and supplementary brocading wefts; five panels joined; finished at both ends with knotted and braided warp fringe
- Dimensions
- 278.1 × 172.7 cm (109 1/2 × 68 in.) Weft repeat: point repeat Fringe length: 9 in. (on side with accession number label), 10 in.
- Genre
- weaving
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Styles
Tags
silk (fiber)africanarts of AfricamerinaAfrican TextilesTextilemalagasyweavingplain weaving
About
In this display piece, the jewel-like colors and designs in the weaving are a contemporary revival of akotofohana, a 19th-century cloth worn by monarchs in Madagascar as their most luxurious mode of dress. Malagasy people consider cloth to be the ultimate gift: a valuable symbol of relationships forged between rulers, individuals, ancestors, and spirits. Rulers presented the fine mulberry silk textiles to foreign dignitaries as they established and built diplomatic ties around the world. For example, Queen Ranavalona III of Madagascar sent two akotofohana cloths to US President Grover Cleveland in 1886.