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Document Details : Title: Traces of a Central Asian Textile on the Walls of an Early Medieval Spanish Church Author(s): MIERSE, William E. Journal: Ancient West & East Volume: 16 Date: 2017 Pages: 249-270 DOI: 10.2143/AWE.16.0.3214941 Abstract : Three friezes decorate the Visigothic church of Santa María de Quintanilla de las Viñas. The motifs are unique to the church. There are no Western prototypes for them, but the forms do look suspiciously like motifs known from Central Asian textiles. A Central Asian textile entering Spain prior to AD 711, earlier than those known from mediaeval church treasuries, poses interesting questions about the means of exchange and the reasons for it. Sasanian Persian motifs were part of the visual iconography of international court art by the 7th century AD, and their presence in Spain suggests that Visigothic nobles were using an iconographic language developed by the courts at Ctesiphon and Constantinople. |
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