Towel
1750–1850
- Medium
- Cotton, plain weave with supplementary brocading wefts; embroidered with silk and metal-strip-wrapped silk
- Dimensions
- 161.9 × 56.3 cm (63 3/4 × 22 1/4 in.)
- Genre
- textile
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Styles
Tags
linen (material)flowersdiamond shapesfloral arrangementsottomansilk (textile)metal-strip-wrapped silkneedlework (visual works)Textileweavingembroidering
About
During the 17th century, Ottoman artists in Turkey developed a taste for flowers presented in clusters and in profile—a trend also seen in works made by the Safavids, in Iran, and the Mughals, in India. The motif can be traced to the introduction of European herbals, books that illustrated flowers in this fashion. This particularly sumptuous example has a ground fabric, usually plain in Turkish production, which was woven with a subtle and beautiful repeat pattern of diamonds.