The Stein Collection
Textile
9th century to 10th century (made)
9th century to 10th century (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
These strips are of polychrome pattern-woven silk with one small fragment of monochrome plain woven green silk. The designs include repeating floral motifs, and flowers interspersed with confronting ducks. It is unclear what these textiles would have been used for, although they probably had a decorative function.
They were recovered from Cave 17 of the Mogao Grottoes. This shrine site is one of China's great Buddhist pilgrimage complexes and is situated near the oasis town of Dunhuang. It is part of an area of Central Asia we now call the Silk Road. This series of overland trade routes crossed Asia from China to Europe. The most notable item traded was silk but the Silk Road was also important for the exchange of ideas. While silk textiles travelled west from China, Buddhism travelled east, entering China from India.
The explorer and archaeologist Sir Marc Aurel Stein (1862-1943) brought this textile back from Central Asia. The V&A has around 600 ancient and medieval textiles recovered by Stein at the beginning of the 20th century. Some, like these strips, are silk. Others are made from the wool of a variety of different animals.
They were recovered from Cave 17 of the Mogao Grottoes. This shrine site is one of China's great Buddhist pilgrimage complexes and is situated near the oasis town of Dunhuang. It is part of an area of Central Asia we now call the Silk Road. This series of overland trade routes crossed Asia from China to Europe. The most notable item traded was silk but the Silk Road was also important for the exchange of ideas. While silk textiles travelled west from China, Buddhism travelled east, entering China from India.
The explorer and archaeologist Sir Marc Aurel Stein (1862-1943) brought this textile back from Central Asia. The V&A has around 600 ancient and medieval textiles recovered by Stein at the beginning of the 20th century. Some, like these strips, are silk. Others are made from the wool of a variety of different animals.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Parts | This object consists of 2 parts.
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Title | The Stein Collection (named collection) |
Materials and techniques | Pattern woven silk with stitching |
Brief description | Fragments of polychrome pattern woven silk showing lions in a roundel on red ground |
Physical description | 40 fragments, of various shapes, in polychrome patterned weave silk showing remains of small roundel design, arranged in bands, on a red ground. The white roundels are outlined in blue with details in green and yellow depicting two lions, with biting jaws and extended claws, chasing each others' tail. One of the fragments shows a different colour scheme with a yellow roundel, outlined in blue, with details in green and white, but still on a red ground. There may be a further eight pieces which belong to this yellow colour scheme. Two pieces are seamed and several others show old seam lines. Strips of folded purple silk gauze are stitched to one rectangular fragment along its length on both sides. Selvedges are intact on 13 pieces and a few have a plaster-like deposit attached to the surface of the textile. 1. Fragments with lion roundels (with green weft) (14 pieces) Weave structures: Main warp: silk, single, light red, 18 warps/cm; Binding warp: silk, single, light red, 18 warps/cm; Weft: silk, red, blue, green, yellow, white, 18 passes/cm (red amd green weft for the ground); Weave structure: 1/2Z compound twill weft faced on both sides 2. Fragments with lion roundels (without green weft) (26 pieces) Weave structures: Main warp: silk, single, light red, 18 warps/cm; Binding warp: silk, single, light red, 18 warps/cm; Weft: silk, single, red, blue, green, yellow, white, 18 passes/cm (two passes red weft for the ground); Weave structure: 1/2Z compound twill weft faced on both sides |
Dimensions |
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Styles | |
Credit line | Stein Textile Loan Collection. On loan from the Government of India and the Archaeological Survey of India. Copyright: Government of India. |
Historical context | Dunhuang is at the eastern end of the southern Silk Road, in present-day Gansu Province. It lies between the western reaches of China and the Tarim Basin. When China began to expand into Central Asia during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), Dunhuang served as a base for military operations and trade. In the succeeding centuries, Buddhist shrines were established southeast of Dunhuang in a series of man-made caves called Qianfodong, "Caves of the Thousand Buddhas" (today also known as the Mogao Grottoes). Here spectacular cave temples were cut out of the cliffs, beginning in the fourth century AD. Over a period of several centuries, communities of Buddhist monks filled the caves with splendid sculpture and wall paintings. These included colossal Buddha statues, painted clay sculptures of deities, elaborate murals of Buddhist legends, and thousands of tiny painted Buddha images; all of which gave the site its name, Qianfodong. Buddhist cave temples had first been established in at Bamiyan (Afghanistan) and Gandhara (formerly in India, now Pakistan). At Qianfodong, Stein found paintings of graceful figures in the Gandharan style among landscapes and buildings that were distinctly Chinese; a fusion of Indian and Chinese art, which he had noted elsewhere along the Silk Road. In 1900, a Daoist monk named Wang Yuanlu discovered a secret cave at Qianfodung, which contained thousands of documents and paintings. Stein purchased a significant amount of this material from Wang during his visit to the Dunhuang in 1907. Among the many religious works were Buddhist, Jewish, Nestorian, Daoist and Confucian texts; all of which dated from approximately 400 to 1000 A.D. Numerous languages were represented as well, including Chinese, Sanskrit, Tibetan and Hebrew. Stein also acquired many textile pieces. Most of these were silk, for Dunhuang lay on the main trade route between silk-growing regions of China and Central Asia. Elaborate embroideries depicted Buddhist legends and processions of donors. Patterned silks included Chinese and Sassanian (Persian) designs. From China came floral and geometric patterns, combined with figures of animals and birds. Sassanian motifs included pairs of confronted ducks, lions, and other beasts, combined with medallions and quatrefoils. Stein also found undecorated silks used as processional banners and valances for decorating bases of statues. The cave was sealed soon after 1000 A.D., apparently to protect the contents from invading armies. The V&A holds, on loan, a large number of textiles from Dunhuang, including plain and pattern woven silks in many colours, painted Buddhist banners and canopies, and wrappers for Buddhist texts. |
Production | Found in Cave 17 of the Mogao Grottoes (Caves of the Thousand Buddhas). |
Subject depicted | |
Association | |
Summary | These strips are of polychrome pattern-woven silk with one small fragment of monochrome plain woven green silk. The designs include repeating floral motifs, and flowers interspersed with confronting ducks. It is unclear what these textiles would have been used for, although they probably had a decorative function. They were recovered from Cave 17 of the Mogao Grottoes. This shrine site is one of China's great Buddhist pilgrimage complexes and is situated near the oasis town of Dunhuang. It is part of an area of Central Asia we now call the Silk Road. This series of overland trade routes crossed Asia from China to Europe. The most notable item traded was silk but the Silk Road was also important for the exchange of ideas. While silk textiles travelled west from China, Buddhism travelled east, entering China from India. The explorer and archaeologist Sir Marc Aurel Stein (1862-1943) brought this textile back from Central Asia. The V&A has around 600 ancient and medieval textiles recovered by Stein at the beginning of the 20th century. Some, like these strips, are silk. Others are made from the wool of a variety of different animals. |
Bibliographic references |
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Other number | Ch.00179 - Stein number |
Collection | |
Accession number | LOAN:STEIN.326&:1 |
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Record created | November 14, 2003 |
Record URL |
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