Luxury Cloth: Cushion Cover
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.Across the Kongo region and along the Loango coast, textile production was a complex process: climbing trees; choosing and preparing leaves; combing and thinning out threads; weaving the cloth; applying gray, black, and red dyes made from chalk, clay, charcoal, or redwood; and cutting and combing the pile to enhance and elaborate the texture. Textile manufacture and distribution were closely associated with the wielding of power, whether by royal administrators, chiefs, household heads, religious specialists, or traders. Europeans immediately learned that textiles played a central role in the region’s economy and commercial networks.
Artwork Details
- Title: Luxury Cloth: Cushion Cover
- Date: 17th–18th century, inventoried 1737
- Geography: Democratic Republic of the Congo; Republic of the Congo; Angola
- Culture: Kongo peoples; Kongo Kingdom
- Medium: Raffia
- Dimensions: 23 1/4 in. (59 cm) × 23 1/4 in. (59 cm)
- Classification: Textiles-Woven
- Credit Line: Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen
- Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing