Image

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 / 12

Unknown Maker, Indian

Mat (kalamkari)

Description

Maker

Culture

Indian

Title

Mat (kalamkari)

Year

late 1700s

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

cotton

Geography

Place Made: India; Place Made: Coromandel Coast

Dimensions

Length: 135.3 cm (53 1/4 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Miss Lucy T. Aldrich

Object Number

37.006

Type

Textiles

Exhibition History

“Insnared with flowers, I fall on grass"

Jun 10, 2014 – Mar 08, 2015

Label copy

Reminiscent of a Persian carpet design, this cotton mat is organized around an ornate central medallion, corner segments, and framing borders. This formal arrangement is offset by playful creatures-monkeys and birds-inhabiting the swirling foliage of exotic flowers. Highly skilled artisans working in several stages produced this kalamkari chintz, or cotton cloth painted and printed in many colors using a brush (kalam), patterned woodblock stamps, and mordant dyes. For centuries, Indian artisans held the secret to printing fine cotton fabric with colorfast dyes and enjoyed a monopoly on the export of such designs, produced according to the tastes of clientele spanning the globe

Indian Textiles from the RISD Collection

Nov 01, 1985 – Feb 16, 1985

Use & Feedback

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Unknown Maker, Indian

Mat (kalamkari), late 1700s

Cotton plain weave, block printed and hand painted

Length: 135.3 cm (53 1/4 inches)

Gift of Miss Lucy T. Aldrich 37.006

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.