Reassembling and Discovering Curtain Pairs in Egypt

Mirrored curtain pairs appear to have been incredibly special and rare productions, based on both surviving physical examples and visual representations. In December 2022, the Art Institute of Chicago acquired a large fragment of an Early Byzantine curtain (acc. no. 2022.1833). Measuring 192.5 × 142.3 cm, the piece has a surviving selvedge on both the left- and right-handsides, and comprises a plain weave linen background with a colorful tapestry weave pattern of alternating rows of rosettes and vases filled with stylized flowers or fruit. The piece has striking similarities to a set of fragments belonging to part of a large curtain preserved in the collection of the Badisches Landesmuseum in Karlsruhe (acc. no. T 205 a-f). Close technical and scientific analysis of both pieces confirm that the Chicago and Karlsruhe fragments are connected, and that they comprise the largest surviving example of a mirrored curtain pair to survive from antiquity. Using the data set developed through the study of the Chicago and Karlsruhe textile fragments, this paper establishes a larger corpus of mirrored curtain pairs than was previously imagined. In light of the new technical and design aspects that this study reveals about these large-scale textiles, this paper further considers how these textiles were made and functioned.