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Coptic Art
The Benaki Museum's collection of Coptic art includes a uniquely rich group of textiles. These fabrics recently received international exposure through the
European programme Tissus, when specialists and researchers from all over the world were able to gain access to them following their publication on
the Internet.
The blending of elements, derived from the local Egyptian tradition and Greco-Roman civilisation with vigorous newer elements of the Christian religion, is
very clearly reflected in the textiles which comprise this particular collection. The stress on ornament, the stylisation of the human figure, the emphasis
on depicting local subjects such as Nile landscapes, and above all the expressive immediacy of the scenes themselves, are all distignuishing features of
Coptic art.
Some of the textiles in the collection reproduce the subject matter and aesthetic tendencies of the great artistic centres of the day. These fragmentary
objects are the only evidence we have of the appearance of luxurious silk cloths which have for the most part been lost.
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