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Bringing the Holy Land Home: The Crusades, Chertsey Abbey, and the Reconstruction of a Medieval Masterpiece

Relief with Addorsed Ducks

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What does the Textile Fragment from the Reliquary of St. Librada tell us about the crusades? By Cecilia Baillon '24

This textile fragment provides many meaningful insights into the crusades:

This textile fragment, in connection with the broader group of medallion silks produced and circulated across regions during the Middle Ages, is a testament to consistencies in design and material preference during the crusades, a period of shifting rule and cultural merging. Its production in Islamic Spain is also a testament to the vast migration of textile technology, from Asia to Byzantium, and later Europe, and gives further insight into the movement of craftspeople and their knowledge that occurred throughout the crusades. Its lampas weave, or a complex weave created with two layers, one typically of silk and the other of metallic threading, is a testament to the rapid advancement of technology arguably intensified by the crusades.

While the crusades have historically been deemed a “clash of religions” this textile fragment, woven in Islamic Spain and preserved in the reliquary of St. Librada, serves as valuable evidence for how Islamic objects were adopted and integrated into even the most sacred Christian contexts. It negates the often perceived idea that Christianity and Islam are fundamentally opposed belief systems. Indeed, much of the iconography, such as the heraldically posed eagle, displayed on this fragment and many other textiles would have been contextualized across religions and even in the secular world. These characteristics also call for reflection: Christian kingdoms were invading Muslim regions during the Reconquista looking to gain additional control of Spain while simultaneously admiring the objects and treasures produced in Islamic Spain.

This textile's supposed story of being taken as war loot by Alfonso VII of Castile when his armies invaded Almeria, Spain in 1147, indicates how the crusades (in this case, the Reconquista) provided another avenue for textile circulation during the Middles Ages; textiles and other treasures were relocated as crusaders and other Christian soldiers carried them home from battle.

The textile presence in the reliquary of St. Librada gives insight into a particular use for silks during the Middle Ages in connection with the crusades: transportation of relics and lining reliquaries. This textile fragment’s association and physical contact with the relic of a Christian saint would have further elevated its value and status. The synergy created by the combination of a Christian relic and a luxurious silk was extraordinary.

Finally, medallion silks had incredible influence on other media like sculpture, and notably, the Chertsey Tiles. The repeated roundel design, originating in the East, crossed geographies and infiltrated cultures, all while maintaining consistency and value. Medallion silks speak to shared preferences across peoples and over a span of time, namely the Middle Ages.
Relief with Addorsed Ducks (DO BZ.1936.51) By: Jayme Anastasi '23
This relief suggests iconographic exchanges between medieval textiles and other media. Two sculpted ducks sit with their backs towards each other, with ribbons tied loosely around their necks, enshrined in a beaded frame. These design elements were common in the luxury eastern textiles that circulated in the Mediterranean at this time, especially those deriving from Sasanian designs (the Sasanians controlled the Near East before the Muslim conquests in the 7th century). It is likely that this relief panel was influenced by these designs. In its original context, the marble panel likely decorated a piece of liturgical furniture, perhaps a pulpit, in a Christian church. The designs were inspired by foreign textile traditions and, here, are recontextualized into a Christian framework.
Why was the Relief with Addorsed Ducks made and how was it used?
In the context of a Christian worship space in medieval Italy, we can understand the Relief with Addorsed Ducks is likely to have been a decorative panel that adorned a piece of early Christian liturgical furniture (either pulpit or ambo), or the spot from where a priest would deliver a sermon. Although the textiles that inspired the aesthetic frameworks of this relief panel were created and woven in the Eastern, and predominantly Islamic, world, we now find similar designs in Christian spaces. A closer look at the iconographic elements and natural imagery of the relief panel serves to convey and define the symbolic messages of unity, divinity, and regeneration.
UNITY: The symmetrical design of the panel imposes a sense of unity in the composition, bringing together the intricately carved natural imagery of the ducks and the ornate repetition of the vegetal motifs that surround them. The ducks, sitting addorsed, reject this sentiment of unity in their existence as a pair. They create two halves of one whole panel and disrupt the otherwise unified organization, showing the complex nature of early medieval craftsmanship.

DIVINITY: This visual image of a duck with a floating ribbon around its neck was a typical motif exhibited by the design work of the Sasanian empire, who were in power in the Middle East during the sixth century. The Sasanians controlled this area before the early Muslim conquests, and certainly before the First Crusade. These images above shows a 6th-century frieze wall painting decorating the front of an earthen bench that ran around the cave wall at the Buddhist Kizil Monastery Complex in Kucha, or modern day China. During this time, Kucha was a commercial hub for the Silk Road. As the Relief with Addorsed Ducks is thought to be from medieval Sorrento, Italy, a similar designwork found as far away as China is a testament to how far the designs and exchange of production techniques truly traveled. The frieze shows ducks in pearled roundels facing each other, holding garlands of jewels and pearls in their beaks. They are also wearing floating ribbons and pearl collars around their necks. Some scholars argue that this symbol serves as a symbolic garland or crown to connect the piece, its function, or the birds themselves with imperial power. Known as pativs, the divine power and glory assumed by the ruler could then be understood as translated to motif reflected in the panel. In addition to the focus object of this exhibition page, the Relief with Addorsed Ducks, the Dumbarton Oaks collection owns another marble panel centrally designed by a duck wearing the ribbon symbol.

REGENERATION: The medallion or roundel form surrounded by a frame of pearl beadings indicates a signature characteristic of eastern Sasanian designs. The circular pattern is indicative of continuity and the cyclical nature of life itself. Many of the eastern medallion textiles and stucco work featured an encircled image of the Tree of Life. The motif of the Tree of Life is known to be sacred to many religions and cultures that may have been in contact with each other during Silk Road travels. In a Christian space in medieval Italy, the tree would have been understood in connection with Christ and the Cross. Confronted images of various animals typically accompany these depictions of the Tree of Life, and it is interesting to note the addorsed position of the ducks in the Relief with Addorsed Ducks.
What is this? This object is a rectangularly-shaped panel carved from marble. The dimensions of this relief panel are about 20 inches by 17, and about 2 inches high. Due to its quality as a stone that could be easily and intricately carved, marble has been the preferred carving material since the times of the ancient Greeks. As suggested by the title, the focal point of the design of the Relief with Addorsed Ducks is the two ducks who sit in the center of the composition with their backs toward one another. They are also the primary decorative motif of the object, which is indicated by their central position and size. Their wings are highly stylized and carefully carved to show each distinct feather.
The ducks are placed in a roundel, surrounded by a repeating pattern of circular and oval shapes, evoking resonances of pearl iconography. The border consists of two distinct shapes that occur in repetition. This style is similar to the decoration of other objects in this exhibition and is undoubtedly related to Sasanian design techniques.
A short ribbon wraps around the necks of the ducks and crosses behind their head. The ribbon is free floating. We can see that it is not depicted as physically connected to the naturalistic and vegetal motifs of the roundel’s background. The ribbon is placed loosely around their necks and is not restrictive or choking them. Rather, it seems to adorn the ducks like a crown or garland.

In the corners of this object, surrounding the central medallion of the duck motif, large oak leaves are paired with acorns. Typically, the iconographic symbol of the oak tree and its fruit, the acorn, is representative of stability, strength, and fertility. Together, with the symmetrical design, they create a more unified composition. Underneath the ducks, inside the central medallion, 4 clusters of oak seeds are connected to a fully grown acorn, connecting to a fan-like vegetal piece that houses the ducks, containing them within its frame. This image may evoke resonances of the popular Tree of Life motif.