Cloth of Gold with Rabbit Wheels

Cloth of Gold with Rabbit Wheels Lampas; silk and gold thread Eastern Iranian world, about 1225-1260 The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1993.140 (Cat. no. 45) The lavish amount of gold-used here for both the pattern and the background-reflects the extravagant taste of the Mongols. Known as "cloths of gold," such textiles were primarily woven for the official costumes of the Mongol court. Repeated roundels enclose four rabbits that share two pairs of ears and run in a circle. This motif, known as an animal wheel, is very ancient in Asia. Rabbits are commonly found on eastern Iranian metalwork dating from around 1200. Although the Mongol conquest of the Eastern Iranian world had taken place (1220-22), traditional silk patterns continued to be produced through the mid-1200s.