Fragment of Roundel (Orbiculus) with Pyrrhic Dancer and Nereids
300
Physical Qualities
Wool, 8 3/4 x 8 3/4 in. (22.2 x 22.2 cm.)
Credit Line
The Cone Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland
Object Number
1950.2016.1
A fragmentary tapestry-woven roundel, probably a tunic ornament but possibly from a furnishing fabric, depicting a kneeling Pyrrhic dancer in the center holding a shield in one hand and a cup or another object in the other hand raised above his bent elbow. The dancer is tapestry-woven in purplish-brown wool on a natural wool ground. The dancer's features, and the pattern in the eight-pointed star and area immediately surrounding him are created with eccentric undyed wefts (possibly flying shuttle or flying needle technique) using natural or undyed threads against a dark ground of the same purplish-brown wool as the figure. Around this section is a wide area of natural colored ground filled with Dionysian imagery of nereids interspersed with amphora out of which grow grapevines. All figures are tapestry woven in dark purplish- brown wool with undyed wefts woven in as needed for definition. The final outer border is crenelated and executed in the same purplish-brown wool.
The warp and weft are S spun single yarns. The sturcture is weft faced plain weave (tapestry) with a supplementary weft. YPI: 32 warp by 140 weft. (Per Textile Conservation Center.)
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1950; Etta Cone.
Anita Jones, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Timeless Weft: Ancient Tapestries and the Art of Louise B. Wheatley, February 1–July 30, 2017.