Plate No. 048fabric
The woven self-pattern: figure against ground in one color.
- First documented
- Middle Ages
- Origin
- Damascus, Levant, Syria
- Fiber
- silk, linen, cotton
- Weave
- jacquard, satin figure on sateen ground
- Family
- motifs
Plate No. 048 · fabric
Damask
Damask is a self-patterned cloth: its ornament is woven, not printed, by setting a satin figure against a sateen ground in a single color, so the motif appears and disappears as light moves across the two surfaces. The technique is ancient Chinese, the name medieval, taken from Damascus where European traders met the cloth. Its classic vocabulary of symmetric medallions, acanthus scrolls, and pomegranates has made it the default language of formal interiors, tablecloths, and wallpaper for five centuries.
Named for
Named for Damascus, the great Silk Road trading city through which the figured silks reached Europe.