Central Asia: Woven silk textile with silver paper showing Chinese influence, 13th century.

With its stylized, calligraphic frieze, in which the upstrokes of the letters end in animal heads, its lively lions and griffins rooted in the Sasanian and Byzantine tradition, and its sumptuous, lotus-like imaginary flowers on wildly contorted arabesque vines, the textile combines features from the culture of both East and West. The use of paper for the silver thread points in the direction of China, while the iconography is Western.

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Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

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Pictures From History