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Ceremonial textiles.

Ceremonial textiles.

  • Place of origin:

    Gujarat (made)

  • Date:

    late 14th century -15th century (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Unknown

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Cotton, block-printed.

  • Credit Line:

    Purchased with Art Fund support

  • Museum number:

    IS.95-1993

  • Gallery location:

    In Storage

This cotton ceremonial cloth has a design of a woman carrying a parrot with female attendants holding an umbrella. The design is repeated over two registers. The motifs mimic those seen in western Indian manuscript painting of the period 1400-1500 and earlier. Radiocarbon-14 dating of the cloth has confirmed a date in this range.

This cloth was produced in Gujarat, western India, but was collected in the Toraja area of central Sulawesi. Here, cloths like this one served as banner hangings and stage-set backdrops for ceremonies, especially harvest festivals and celebrations of rites of passage.

Place of Origin

Gujarat (made)

Date

late 14th century -15th century (made)

Artist/maker

Unknown

Materials and Techniques

Cotton, block-printed.

Dimensions

Width: 98 cm, Length: 503 cm

Object history note

Ceremonial cloth with a design of woman carying a parrot and with female attendants holding an umbrella. The design is repeated over two registers. The motifs mimmick those seen in western Indian manuscript painting of the15th century and earlier. Radiocarbon 14 dating has confirmed a date in this range. This cloth was produced in Gujarat, western India, and collected in the Toraja area of central Sulawesi, where such items served as banner hangings and stage-set backdrops for ceremonies, especially harvest ferstivals and the rites of passage celebrations.

Descriptive line

Ceremonial textile. Gujarat for the Indonesian market.

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

John Guy, Woven Cargoes, Indian Textiles in the east, Thames and Hudson, 1996, pl. 146.

Materials

Cotton

Techniques

Block-printing

Categories

Textiles; Clothing

Production Type

Unique

Collection

South & South East Asia Collection

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