Tapestry Roundel with Nimbed Bust
6th-7th century
This spectacular tapestry roundel features a nimbed (haloed) figure in elegant clothing, encircled by a central garland, surrounded by extensive vegetal, floral, and snail motifs. It is one of two roundels (known as orbiculi) that once decorated a tunic, and its match is apparently in the collections of the Benaki Museum in Athens.
This roundel epitomizes the iconographic ambiguity of textiles from this period. The figure’s crown is reminiscent of the crown of Tyche (Fortuna), the Greco-Roman goddess of prosperity and fortune. The garland that surrounds the figure’s head is possibly the laurel leaf, a plant associated not only with the well-known myth of Apollo and Daphne, but also with poetry and the imperial Roman state. The figure stands at the center of what appears to be a red Greek cross, and her head is backed by a golden halo, perhaps indicating some kind of Christian sainthood. Who would have worn this tunic? A Christian? A devotee of Tyche? Someone who believed some amalgamation of faiths? Or did someone of means simply find the imagery artistically compelling, and commission the tunic as a status symbol?
Compare the coloring, style, motifs, and layout to 90.5.687 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Artwork Details
Title:
Tapestry Roundel with Nimbed Bust
Date:
6th-7th century
Geography:
Egypt
Classification:
Textile
Materials:
Linen and wool
Dimensions:
18 x 19 cm (7 x 7.5 in)
Repository:
McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Accession Number:
McMullen 2018.6
Tellalian Number:
Tellalian 1979-01000
Donor:
Barbara and Donald Tellalian
Provenance:
Purchased from Charles Dikran Kelekian, Ancient Arts, New York, NY on 14 July 1979. Provenance unknown prior to Kelekian family.
Exhibition History:
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. Early Christian and Byzantine Art, 25 April - 22 June 1947. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Deities, Saints, and Allegories: Late Antique and Coptic Textiles, 21 October - 6 March 1994. McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College. Roman in the Provinces: Art on the Periphery of Empire, 14 February - 31 May 2015. https://www.bc.edu/sites/artmuseum/exhibitions/rip/
Publication History:
Early Christian and Byzantine Art: An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art, April 25-June 22, Organized by the Walters Art Gallery, 158, #805A. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1947. Nicgorski, Ann M. “The Fate of Serapis: A Paradigm for Transformations in the Culture and Art of Late Roman Egypt.” In Roman in the Provinces: Art on the Periphery of Empire, edited by Lisa R. Brody and Gail L. Hoffman, 153–66, plate 2. Boston College: McMullen Museum of Art, distributed by the University of Chicago Press, 2014.
Conservation History:
Unknown month, 1981: Margaret A. Leveque, M.A.C., Brighton, MA. November, 1981: Textile Conservation Center, North Andover, MA.