Textile Fragment with Dancing Woman and Rabbit

Description: 

Textile Fragment with Dancing Woman and Rabbit

Coptic (Egypt), 8th century

wool
height 5.5 inches
width 3.75 inches

Provenance: Hallie Ford Museum, donated by A. Dean McKenzie, bought from Alex G. Malloy, Inc., 595 Madison Ave New York City circa 1970.

Publication: Thompson "Textiles in the Brooklyn Museum," 1968 New York no. 30

Hallie Ford Museum Label Text
This remarkable textile fragment is adorned with an inwoven image of a dancing woman draped in a long cloth. Below her is a roundel featuring a rabbit with ears folded back. On either side of these figures are plant motifs and decorative borders with geometric patterns. This textile was made in Egypt during the Coptic Early Christian period, a time when a multitude of cultural and religious influences (for example, Egyptian, Persian, Greco-Roman, Islamic, and Christian) shaped artistic production, resulting in a dynamic fusion of motifs and themes as well as an energetic and ornate style. Because of the arid desert conditions, many such textiles have been preserved, although most are only fragmentary remains of garments, wall hangings, and other household items.

Willamette University, Hallie Ford Museum of Art: 2001.033
Gift of A. Dean McKenzie
 

Sara Crawford, Medieval Portland Capstone Student, 2016
This textile is made from wool and linen, as were most textiles from the Coptic era.[1] It features a figure in a draping dress in black-dyed wool on a background of naturally-colored linen. The figure, likely a woman, is shown in profile view, with her torso in frontal view with one arm raised and the other lowered.[2] This is a common pose for figures, especially in this era, serving to display the entire body.[3] She dances on a black roundel, a woven circle, with a rabbit inside. She is bordered by geometric motifs and plants. The dress is very detailed, and the figure itself, though lacking the head due to missing fragments, is very proportionate. It is likely that this dancer is associated with Bacchus or Dionysus.

While the term “Coptic Textile” usually refers to textiles made during the Christian Byzantine era in Egypt, not all of them feature Christian iconography.[4] Instead, much Coptic art was heavily influenced by Greek, Egyptian, Byzantine, and Persian symbols and styles, due to Egypt's centralized location between the various empires and cultures.[5] Dionysus is a classical Greek god of revelry and fertility. He was associated with grapes, vines, rabbits, and dancing.[6] The plants in the fragment, tall and shown with tendrils and leaves, are likely grapevines.[7] The rabbit, or hare, is known for its rapid reproduction and is usually depicted in the act of jumping.[8] The dancer, wearing an open robe and revealing her body, is a common image in Dionysian art.[9] The dancer is invigorated and energetic. A fragment from the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad, Bacchantes, and Satyrs (No. 9577) shows the same patterning for the dancer and the grapevines, suggesting that this motif was a common one during this period.[10]

Biblography
Kybalova, Ludmila. Coptic textiles. Translated by Till Gottheiner. London: Paul Hamlyn Ltd, 1967.
Late Antique Textile Fragments. n.d. in Academic Commons, Willamette University. Accessed October 17, 2016. http://libmedia.willamette.edu/hfma/omeka/exhibits/show/late-antique-textile-fragments.
Mazza, Christopher J. “Conservation of a 4th Century Coptic Fragment.” Master's thesis, S.U.N.Y. Fashion Institute of Technology, 2015.
Seagroatt, Margaret. Coptic Weaves: Notes on the collection of Coptic Textiles in the Merseyside County Museums. St. Helens, ENG: Wood Westworth & Co. Limited, 1978.
Strydonck, Mark Van, Antonie De Moor, and Dominique Bénazeth. “14C Dating Compared to Art Historical Dating of Roman and Coptic Textiles from Egypt.” Radiocarbon 46, no. 1 (2004): 231-244.

Notes
[1] Ludmila Kybalova, Coptic textiles, trans. Till Gottheiner (London: Paul Hamlyn Ltd, 1967), 39.
[2] “Dancers,” Late Antique Textile Fragments, n.d., in Academic Commons, Willamette University, accessed October 17, 2016, http://libmedia.willamette.edu/hfma/omeka/exhibits/show/late-antique-textile-fragments/dancers.
[3] Kybalova, Coptic textiles, 66.
[4] Mark Van Strydonck, Antonie De Moor, and Dominique Bénazeth, “14C Dating Compared to Art Historical Dating of Roman and Coptic Textiles from Egypt,” Radiocarbon 46, no. 1 (2004): 231.; Mark Van Strydonck, “Four Coptic Textiles from the Louvre Collection 14C Redated after 55 Years,” Radiocarbon 56, no. 1 (2014): 1.
[5] Margaret Seagroatt, Coptic Weaves: Notes on the collection of Coptic Textiles in the Merseyside County Museums (St. Helens, ENG: Wood Westworth & Co. Limited, 1978), 2; Kybalova, Coptic textiles, 36.
[6] Christopher J. Mazza, "Conservation of a 4th Century Coptic Fragment" (master's thesis, S.U.N.Y. Fashion Institute of Technology, 2015), 17.
[7] “Christian Iconography,” Willamette University.
[8] Kybalova, Coptic textiles, 67.
[9] Mazza, “Conservation of a 4th Century Coptic Fragment,” 17; Kybalova, Coptic textiles, 66.
[10] Kybalova, Coptic textiles, 66.