MOROCCO, 16TH OR 17TH CENTURY

This textile relates closely to an example in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection, which is decorated with a similar band of geometric panels and niches and is dated to the 16th or 17th century. Although it is attributed to Morocco, the author mentions that it can be related in design, colour and technique to earlier Spanish examples. The earliest Hispano-Moresque silk textiles were woven in Spain between the first half of the 13th century and until the 15th century, and subsequently in Morocco – possibly in workshops that moved to North Africa following the expulsion of the Jewish and Muslim communities from Spain. There are no known Spanish examples with the multiple niche, or saf, design although there are at least eight Moroccan ones that survive (J.M. Rogers, Empire of the Sultans. Ottoman art from the collection of Nasser D. Khalili, Geneva, 1995, no.142, pp.208-09).