How was this made?
By Christopher Smith '22
Weft-faced means that it was made by crosswise threads rather than lengthwise yarns. Here is a video of how a weft-faced textile like this was made:
Narration of video clip: The threads are pulled taut. Then the vertical threads that are to be behind the horizontal threads are pulled back and separated. Then, the horizontal thread is passed through the gap. This process is then repeated.
Repetition is common in textiles because of the technology used. Here is the repeating unit used for this textile. This repeating unit is made up of a mirrored image of the man subduing a lion.
Polychrome means many colors. This effect was obtained by using coloring agents on silks. For example, copper was used for green and cobalt for blue. Polychrome silks originated in China in the 1st to 4th centuries during the Han and Jin dynasties, so they are also known as Jin silks.
This textile exhibits the Chinese five-color scheme, again showing us its Chinese influences. The five colors are red, black, blue, yellow, and white. However, what we see here is the Jin silk variation of the five-color scheme, which colors are red, dark blue, dark green, dark yellow, and tan. Since this is an older textile, some of the darker colors have faded to more of a blackish color.