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Tapestry fragment with Pan and Dionysos
Eastern Mediterranean -Late Roman Egypt
Late Roman-Early Byzantine
4th–5th century A.D.
Object Place: Egypt ?
Medium/Technique
Dyed wool in plain weave [check the weave]; tapestry weave in undyed and colored wools [please
Technique: Wool tapestry: [please, review. Is the green ground cloth along the edges in tapestry weave or is it in plain weave?]
Warp: light bluish-green wool, S-spun; 9-10 to cm; perpendicular to the design.
Weft: colored wools (Z-spun) [are all weft yarns Z-spun?
Needs further analysis]
Slit joins
The coloring of this piece is quite unusual and the colors need to be individually re-identified from the panel itself
Technique: Wool tapestry: [please, review. Is the green ground cloth along the edges in tapestry weave or is it in plain weave?]
Warp: light bluish-green wool, S-spun; 9-10 to cm; perpendicular to the design.
Weft: colored wools (Z-spun) [are all weft yarns Z-spun?
Needs further analysis]
Slit joins
The coloring of this piece is quite unusual and the colors need to be individually re-identified from the panel itself
Dimensions
36 x 38 cm (14 3/16 x 14 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Charles Potter Kling Fund
Accession Number53.18
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope, Fashion and Textiles
ClassificationsTextiles
DescriptionA nearly square panel with Pan and Dionysos is a fragment of a larger woolen cover or wrap as indicated by the direction of the warps and small remnants of the green ground along the frayed edges. The panel has a multi fileted frame in dark blue and cream with a flower petal garland filling the middle. The main field belongs to Pan (on the right) and Dionysos (on the left). Dionysos wears a panther-skin exomis tied in the knot of Hercules on the left shoulder, is lightly bearded, his dark hair braided (?) and pulled back. A muscular Pan has dark hair and beard. Both figures are rendered three-dimensionally, emphasized by their varied flash tones standing out against the dark blue (?purple) of the ground.
The composition has a considerable spatial quality and is very active with the figures going to the left while still turning their heads to the right. Pan’s head communicates lateral movement, in a nearly frontal portrayal Dionysos looks more toward the viewer. Holding onto Pan’s shoulder, the god of Wine projects his altered physical state. The Dionysiac content of the scene is further enforced by the cult’s attributes (clappers, pipes, garland, kantharos [drinking cup] and a goat skin) filling the space around the figures. Both figures have haloes, a device that acknowledges their divine status, although in the Late Roman period haloes begun to be used more widely as a general framing of the heads
The frayed edges and the size of the panel indicate that it came from a larger textile and was only one of a set of four or five such panels woven-in in the corners or in the center and the corners. Considering the popularity and the extent of the Dionysiac cycle, it is likely that in the themes of all four/five tapestry panels drew on that myth. Another textile with the Dionysiac cycle is hinted at by a pair of tapestry woven panels with Silenus and Maenad in the MFA (53.19 and 53.20).
The composition has a considerable spatial quality and is very active with the figures going to the left while still turning their heads to the right. Pan’s head communicates lateral movement, in a nearly frontal portrayal Dionysos looks more toward the viewer. Holding onto Pan’s shoulder, the god of Wine projects his altered physical state. The Dionysiac content of the scene is further enforced by the cult’s attributes (clappers, pipes, garland, kantharos [drinking cup] and a goat skin) filling the space around the figures. Both figures have haloes, a device that acknowledges their divine status, although in the Late Roman period haloes begun to be used more widely as a general framing of the heads
The frayed edges and the size of the panel indicate that it came from a larger textile and was only one of a set of four or five such panels woven-in in the corners or in the center and the corners. Considering the popularity and the extent of the Dionysiac cycle, it is likely that in the themes of all four/five tapestry panels drew on that myth. Another textile with the Dionysiac cycle is hinted at by a pair of tapestry woven panels with Silenus and Maenad in the MFA (53.19 and 53.20).
Provenance1953, sold by Melanie (Mrs. Paul) Mallon, Paris and New York, to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 8, 1953)