Eagles in star-shaped cartouches

This piece of silk is decorated with a pattern of crosses and stars. The stars contain an eagle in profile, the crosses a central rosette from which issue four radiating palmettes. The pattern itself features stems with trefoil endings and contains either quatrefoils or lilies with three separate petals in its interstices. The palette is limited to gold, pink and white. The fabric is samite: a weft-faced twill weave. Samite production endured in the thirteenth century in the western Mediterranean, while the Muslim East, from the eleventh century, produced lampas instead.

This textile probably comes from the Benedictine monastery of San Juan de las Abadesas (Spanish Pyrenees), which has another fragment of it measuring 138 centimetres and which is the origin of smaller pieces found in various collections[1].

Due to its oriental aspect, the textile has been attributed sometimes to Muslim Spain, sometimes to southern Italy, in particular to Sicily where Arab traditions had remained vivant. As for Spain, the motif of an eagle inside a star appears in the brocade cushion placed in the tomb of Sancho IV, king of Castile and León (reigned 1284–95). But a much more similar eagle appears on the reverse of the “augustals”, gold coins struck in the name of Frederick II Hohenstaufen (reigned 1194–1250), king of Sicily and Holy Roman Emperor. Moreover, the gold thread of the present cloth features anticlockwise twisting on a characteristic hemp or linen core, which is not Andalusian. Moreover, its decoration was represented in the work of the Italian painters of the second half of the fourteenth century, for example, in that of the Master of San Martino alla Palma, as a hanging for the Virgin Mary. In short, the both Gothic and oriental character of its making pleads in favour of Sicily where Christian and Muslim cultures had merged[2].

More than these motifs, it is the pattern of stars and crosses – a decorative form with a carpet effect – that was greatly shared by the two cultures. It may be found in Palermo on the wooden ceiling of the palatine chapel (1140); it was also very common in the ceramic claddings of medieval Islam, for example, in Seljuk Anatolia[3].

These oriental fabrics with architectural decoration seemed to have been very popular in the West. These may very well have been Sicilian materials, edged with Arabic inscriptions and covered in polygons, which were depicted in the cycle of paintings dedicated to the life of Saint Francis of Assisi produced by the studio of Giotto between 1296 and 1305. Particularly worthy of note is the fresco entitled Saint Francis Appearing in a Dream to Pope Gregory IX, in which the pope’s chamber, like an oriental prince’s tent, is entirely hung with silks of this kind[4].

What’s more, these oriental borders supplied very direct models to the ornamentalists and image makers of northern Europe for the decoration of Gothic cathedrals or seigniorial residences. Thus, the two small sculpted panels of the Red Door on the north side of Notre-Dame de Paris were apparently inspired by Byzantine fabrics with a diamond pattern filled with fantastic animals. As for the pattern of stars and crosses, it is found in the bas-reliefs, pavements and woodwork of the thirteen century, as in the cathedrals of Rouen and Dijon.

[2] This tendency to syncretism, which was very pronounced in the thirteenth century during the reign of the Norman kings, continued into the following century with the Swabian dynasty, particularly in the field of textiles. Frederick of Hohenstaufen was crowned emperor in Rome in 1220 wearing the cloak of Roger II, embroidered with Arabic script and he had precious fabrics from his treasury in Palermo sent to Germany. The emperor, who was also king of Jerusalem, maintained a friendly correspondence with, sometimes tinged with gnosis, the Ayyubid Sultan Al-Kāmil and often dressed in the oriental style.

[3] For example, in Kubadabad Palace, near Lake Beyšehir, completed in 1236.

[4] Upper basilica of Assisi, Umbria, Italy.