Illustration: William Morris. Peacock and Dragon, 1878.
The Peacock and Dragon is one of William Morris's woven, rather than printed textile designs. It was first produced in 1878 and was extremely expensive to both produce and consume.
Morris had his own carefully thought out ideas as to the hierarchy of textiles. Although producing large amounts of printed textiles himself, he firmly placed printed textiles at the bottom of the scale of skill and achievement, and interestingly he placed woven and embroidered textiles at the top. He estimated that this form of textile skill was deserving of special respect, and work produced in this medium represented some of the best examples that had been handed down through history.
Morris, because of his own philosophy regarding the merits of medieval Europe, was particularly interested in medieval woven and embroidered examples. He spent long hours exploring the details of stitch, weave and colour of both Christian and Islamic textiles held at the South Kensington Museum. It was Islamic woven textiles, and particularly those of Spain and Sicily, that gave Morris the eventual inspiration for the Peacock and Dragon design.
Illustration: Spanish Islamic weaving, 12th century.
Islamic Spain and Sicily along with Byzantium produced probably some of the finest decorative examples of woven textiles anywhere in medieval Europe. The sophistication of weave, composition and colour tone was far ahead of what could readily be achieved in the rest of Europe. Morris, ever one for gargantuan challenges, set out to produce a decorative woven pattern using the medieval Islamic examples that he had studied, as the inspirational starting point. Partially this was a personal challenge, but perhaps more importantly especially when regarding his ever-developing philosophy of creativity versus the commercial, it could be seen as a modern lesson in what could still be achieved if the time and energy of a group of individuals was harnessed towards creativity rather than profit.
Although using Islamic Spanish and Sicilian woven textiles as his inspiration, it does not mean that Morris ended up with a wholly Islamic looking textile design. The decoration, though following the general guide of medieval Islamic textile design, has much more in common with Victorian ideals and aspirations concerning medieval Europe, than that of the prospect of taking seriously the more problematic issue of the enormous influence, and in some respects guiding hand that Islam played in the development of the decorative arts in Europe.
This expensive woven textile was produced by Morris and was used within a number of interior settings, mostly as wall decoration. However, because of its fairly strident and particular design composition, it did tend to make it somewhat difficult when placing it within even a planned interior.
Illustration: William Morris. Peacock and Dragon, 1878.
Morris himself, although not a fan of geometrical decoration and pattern, was aware of the complexity and skill that was part of the Islamic decorative style. He was much more disposed towards the non-geometrical aspects of Islamic decoration, so much so that he felt able to incorporate some of the more obvious medieval Islamic aspects into a number of textile designs produced by Morris & Co after the design of 1878. Admittedly, not all were as obvious in their origin as Peacock and Dragon, but elements do show up in a number of subsequent designs, though mixed heavily with Morris's own medieval decorative ideals.
There are a couple of links should anyone be interested. The first is to a short article detailing the history of textiles within Islamic Spain, which can be found here. There is also an interesting article produced by the National Gallery of Australia concerning the conservation of a nearly three-metre piece of Morris's Peacock and Dragon textile, which can be found here. As always, there is a list of books available concerning this article in the reference links section below.
Further reading links:
Al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain
Islamic Spain, 1250 to 1500
Islamic Arts from Spain
Caliphs And Kings: The Art and Influence Of Islamic Spain
Moorish Culture in Spain
The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain
Siculo-Norman Art: Islamic Culture in Medieval Sicily (Islamic Art in the Mediterranean)
History of Islamic Sicily (Islamic Surveys)
A History of Islamic Spain
A Vanished World: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Medieval Spain
Moorish Spain
Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus
Gardens, Landscape, and Vision in the Palaces of Islamic Spain
Arabic Administration in Norman Sicily: The Royal Diwan (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization)
The Kingdom of Sicily, 1100-1250: A Literary History (The Middle Ages Series)
