Fragment of a Hanging

This is a large piece of a wall hanging, about a metre and a third tall and nearly nine tenths of a metre wide. It shows a single man standing beneath an arched opening held up by columns. His arms are raised, and the museum suggests he may once have held a candelabrum, a branched stand for candles or lamps. He wears a traditional tunic. The colours are what stand out first: red, green, blue, brown and yellow, all still bright and unfaded. The hanging is made of linen and wool, woven in Egypt in the fifth or sixth century.

Start with the man's face. His expression is solemn, yet his eyes seem to glance to one side, which gives him a surprising liveliness. Then look at his face and legs, and at the columns on either side of him. They seem rounded and solid, as if they had real depth, which is hard to achieve in weaving. Finally, find the narrow strips running down his tunic from the shoulders, on the front and on the back. These are called clavic bands, and they are a traditional feature of this kind of tunic.

The hanging was made from materials found in Egypt itself. Linen threads run lengthwise, and wool and linen threads cross them. Together they form a plain, flat foundation, and on top of it sits a pile, a surface of short loose loops or ends of thread, a little like a carpet. The pile is uncut. Some of the pile was also embroidered with stitches. This kind of surface was less common in Byzantine textiles than tapestry weave, in which the coloured threads make up the picture itself. Many Egyptian textiles survive in good condition because they were preserved in dry tombs.

The museum compares this figure to portrait icons, painted sacred images with a haunting, lifelike presence. Like them, the man faces us squarely, with a commanding stare. The composition has bold lines and vivid colours. Even the rounded look of his face, legs and the columns recalls the way painters build volume. Here the effect was achieved in thread, which is much harder. Look once more at his face, and at how the side glance sits against his rigid, frontal pose. It is a small touch that makes this woven figure feel alive.