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Lot Essay
This textile, likely from a wall-hanging, has a plain-weave ground of undyed linen decorated with weft-loop pile in multicolored wool. Preserved is a figure of the Virgin (Theotokos) enthroned, holding the Christ child on her lap, who raises his hands in an orant gesture. To the right of the Virgin's head is a partially-preserved Greek inscription reading "Archangelos." In the original composition, the Virgin and Child were once flanked by Saints on either side, as confirmed by the inscription.
Purely Christian subjects are comparatively rare in the early Coptic repertoire. Contemporary depictions of the Virgin and Child from elsewhere in the Mediterranean world are known from icons, church mosaics and ivory diptychs (see figs. 2-4 in Shepherd, op. cit.). For another Coptic hanging fragment with the same subject, see lot 280, Antiquities, Christie's, London, 29 October 2003.
Purely Christian subjects are comparatively rare in the early Coptic repertoire. Contemporary depictions of the Virgin and Child from elsewhere in the Mediterranean world are known from icons, church mosaics and ivory diptychs (see figs. 2-4 in Shepherd, op. cit.). For another Coptic hanging fragment with the same subject, see lot 280, Antiquities, Christie's, London, 29 October 2003.