BYZANTINE SILK

ATUL BHARTI

DEFINITION
Byzantine silk is silk woven in the Byzantine Empire (Byzantium) from about the fourth century until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.

INTRODUCTION :
The influence exerted by Byzantine silk weaving was profound. Byzantine silk court ritual and ecclesiastical practices were adopted by the Franks, just as Byzantine court furnishing styles and dress codes were echoed across the Islamic world. Byzantium developed elaborate silk court attire and set the style for use of silk in civil and military uniforms and for rich religious vestments.... These silks served as a form of portable wealth that could be profitably disposed of in times of need.

MOTIFS :
Cocks, bulls, paired lions, winged horses, griffons, the tree of life, scenes of human and animal combat, kingly lion hunts each scene arranged with heraldic neatness and contained within a jewel-like rondel of pearls and four squares, the whole design endlessly repeated over a woven field with rondels interspersed with floral motifs.

Byzantine silks of the 6th (and possibly 5th) centuries show overall designs of small motifs such as hearts, swastikas,palmettes and leaves worked in two weft colours.Later, recognizable plant motifs (such as lotus leaves and flowers) and human figures appear. Surviving textiles document a rich exchange of techniques and iconographic themes between Constantinople and the newly-Islamic textile centres of the Mediterranean and Central Asia in the years after the Muslim conquests of the 7th century. Designs of the 8th and 9th centuries show rows of roundels or medallions populated with pairs of human or animal figures reversed in mirror-image on a vertical axis.[Many motifs echo Sassanian designs including the tree of life, winged horses, lions, and imaginary beasts, and there are numbers of surviving pieces where specialists cannot agree between a Byzantine or Islamic origin.Fashionable patterns evoked the activities and interests of the royal court, such as hunting scenes or the quadriga (four-horse chariot).

WEAVES USED & TECHNIQUE

The five basic weaves used in Byzantium and the Islamic weaving centres of the Mediterranean tabby, twill, damask, lampas and tapestry the most important product was the weft-faced compound twill called samite. The word is derived from Old French samit, from medieval Latin samitum, examitum deriving from the Byzantine Greek hexamiton "six threads", usually interpreted as indicating the use of six yarns in the warp. In samite, the main warp threads are hidden on both sides of the fabric by the ground and patterning wefts, with only the binding warps that hold the wefts in place visible

These rich silks literally worth their weight in gold were powerful political weapons of the Byzantine Empire between the 4th and 12th centuries. Diplomatic gifts of Byzantine silks cemented alliances with the Franks. Byzantium granted silk-trading concessions to the sea powers of Venice, Pisa, Genoa and Amalfi to secure naval and military aid for Byzantine territories.

New types of looms and weaving techniques also played a part. Plain-woven or tabby silks had circulated in the Roman world, and patterned damask silks in increasingly complex geometric designs appear from the mid-3rd century. Weft-faced compound twills were developed not later than 600, and polychrome (multicoloured) compound twills became the standard weave for Byzantine silks for the next several centuries. Monochrome lampas weaves became fashionable around 1000 in both Byzantine and Islamic weaving centres; these fabrics rely on contrasting textures rather than colour to render patterns. A small number of tapestry-woven Byzantine silks also survive.