Georgian Liturgical Textile

A velvet textile embroidered with two peacocks, heads turned away from each other, and two unidentified corvine birds drinking from a chalice. 

The detailed designs would have been sketched free-hand in chalk and then filled in with several different types of chain-stitch running in different directions. Metal thread is embroidered over areas padded with bundles of string, imitating the appearance of repoussé metalwork.1

In addition to stock no. A6089, there is a third textile with the same design and similar dimensions (60.5 x 62cm), published in a 1973 book. Though the textile has since been turned into a cushion cover, its intended use was as a ciborium cloth for Tbilisi Sioni Cathedral.2 Our textiles may well share this provenance, and could have been used as a set of altar linens in this cathedral.

Peacocks have long been used as a symbol of eternal life in Christian art, reflecting pagan beliefs that the peacocks' bodies never decay.3 They appear in early Georgian Christian reliefs, such as a capital in the Baptisery of Zion, Bolsini, dating to the 5th century.4 The motif of peacocks drinking from an urn, representing the Eucharistic chalice, occurs in several Byzantine works. A fourth-century mosaic in the Stobi, Macedonia, depicts peacocks and deer drinking from an urn.5 The famous Mosaic of Theodoulous in Sousse, Tunisia, dating to from the 5th to mid-6th century CE, features pairs of partridges, peacocks, ducks, and pheasants drinking from a very similar urn.6 Another similar example of peacocks dating to the 6th century was preserved in Chersonesus, the ancient Greek colony located in modern-day Ukraine.7
While the peacock motif derives from early Christian art, the floral embroidery shows Persian influence. The borders, probably pre-made and cut to size, resemble those of Iranian miniature paintings.

[1] Melikishvili, Izolda. ‘Traditions and technique of artistic embroidery in Georgia’ / 'მხატვრული ქარგვისტრადიცია და ტექნიკა საქართველოში.' Museum and Globalization 1 (2023), pp. 217–236; 222.
[2] Ketevah Davitishvili. The Old Georgian Embroidery. Tbilisi: Khelovneba, 1973, cat. 19.
[3] Litovchenko, Anna N., Michaeil V. Fomin, and Aleksey G. Chekal. ‘On the Origin of the Early Christian Artistic Tradition in Byzantine Chersonesos’, Athens Journal of History 1.3 (2015), pp. 223–238: p. 226.
[4] Machabeli, K. ‘Adaptation of Elements of Sasanian Art in Early Christian Georgian Reliefs.' Hunara: Journal of Ancient Iranian Arts and History 2.2 (2024), pp. 107-127: p. 120.
[5] ‘The Episcopal Basilica’, Archaeological Site Stobi, retrieved online via http://www.stobi.mk/templates/pages/excavations.aspx?page=163 on 24.09.2025. 
[6] Parrish, David. ‘The Mosaic of Theodoulos from Sousse (Tunisia)’, Antiquitésafricaines 16 (1980), pp. 229–239: p. 230. 
[7] Litovchenko et al. Op. Cit., p. 234.