Medium, Materiality, and the Late Antique Jeweled Aesthetic (original) (raw)

In The Jeweled Style: Poetry and Poetics in Late Antiquity, Michael Roberts argues that color, opulence, repetition, and variety epitomized the period’s aesthetics, a phenomenon he terms the “jeweled style.” Although Roberts did not consider textiles in his analyses, this article argues that fabrics participated in the same trends, perhaps even serving as intermediaries in the transfer of motifs between actual gemstones and architectural decoration. The first part of the article shows how Roberts’s definition of the jeweled style fits in larger art historical discussions about late antique aesthetics and visuality. The bulk of the article presents examples of tapestry-woven textiles from the fourth through eighth centuries that depict gems and jewelry in woven form. Many tunics, for example, depict gemstones along their collars; furnishing textiles, too, frequently include representations of gems and jewelry, most notably at the edges of fabrics or as part of woven renderings of architectural structures like columns and arcades. On the most basic level, these woven gemstones reflect the broad popularity of the jeweled aesthetic among a wide social spectrum and in a variety of contexts, especially in fabric furnishings. More particularly, the popularity of jeweled motifs in textiles points to a sophisticated appreciation for artistic bravura, as weavers pushed against the limits of the textile medium to transform yarns into precious stones. Lastly, the article argues that a focus on textiles with jeweled designs points to the interrelatedness of ornamental motifs in late antique jewelry, textiles, and architectural décor, an observation which in turn highlights compelling aesthetic connections between the adorned human body and the built environment.