Panel from an Altar Frontal
1450-1500
Medium
Silk, warp-float faced 3:1 broken twill weave with weft-float faced 1:3 'Z' twill interlacings of secondary binding warps and gilt-metal-strip-wrapped silk supplementary facing wefts forming weft loop pile in areas and with supplementary pile warps forming cut, pile-on-pile, voided velvet; band of silk and gilt-metal-strip-wrapped silk; plain weave with supplementary patterning wefts and extended ground and supplementary patterning weft wrapped cut and uncut fringe; lined with cotton, plain weave
Dimensions
101.5 × 52.4 cm (40 × 20 5/8 in.)
Classification
weaving - velvet
Department
Textiles
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
94560
About the Artist
Unknown
The artist designated as "Unknown" in our virtual museum's collection exemplifies a poignant chapter in art history: creators whose identities have faded into obscurity despite the enduring power of their work. With only one known artwork attributed to them in our holdings, this figure represents countless anonymous hands that shaped visual culture across centuries. Museums worldwide, including th...