Draping the Middle Ages: Moveable Textile Patterns in East and West, c. 500-1500, panel at the College Art Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C. February 3–6, 2016

This panel focuses on the mobile nature of textile patterns in East and West during the Middle Ages, and investigates the question of cultural specificity in the use of imitations of textile in a range of media. As coveted objects of trade and diplomatic gift exchange, textiles were widely distributed using the cross-cultural networks between Byzantium, the Islamic world, East Asia and Europe. Within this broader world of medieval textile exchange, the notion of textile patterns that are adapted in architecture, ceramics, metalwork, and manuscripts stands at the center of this panel. Questions to be discussed are the portability of textile patterns; the adaptation of textile motifs in a variety of media; the appropriation of textiles forms and patterns from other cultural contexts. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the use of textile patterns in architectural decoration, painted textiles in the pages of manuscripts, and architectural motifs woven into fabrics.

Session organizer: Patricia Blessing, Stanford University