Gaddi unified space across this altarpiece's three panels with a single textile floor cover. Its design is typical of contemporary Italian silks, which were a creative blend of various textile traditions. Like many of the "Tartar cloths" that traveled west along the Silk Road across the Mongol Empire, the pattern is woven entirely in gold-wrapped threads. The composition of octagons containing paired griffins and birds, arranged back-to-back against a stylized tree, descends from ancient Persian textiles, via Byzantine and Islamic variations. Geometric interlace framing the animals derives from Islamic ornament but has been given a three-dimensional look to suit contemporary Italian style. When the supply of "Tartar cloths" plummeted after the fall of the Mongol Empire during the 1360s, Italian silks--high in quality and cosmopolitan in design--filled the gap in the booming international luxury trade.

Introduction | Previous | Next