Textile with elephants, crowned double headed eagles, and flowers
Chinese, Macao, for Iberian market
Not on view
Silk—traded as skeins of thread, lengths of fabric, and articles of clothing—dominated Chinese exports. Westerners lavished Chinese silk on the adornment of domestic spaces as well as sacred ones. This textile features a combination of Asian and European motifs, including lotus blossoms, elephants, and the coat of arms of the religious order of Saint Augustine, in which the crowned double-headed eagle of the European Hapsburg dynasty is combined with a heart pierced by arrows. The heart, misread by the weaver as a vaselike form, references the words of Saint Augustine: "Thou hadst pierced our hearts with thy Charity."
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