ABSTRACT
By the end of the thirteenth century, elements of Mongol culture had arrived in the Mediterranean and found their way into the arts and dress of the Latin West. This chapter investigates both textiles and painted representations of Mongols to clarify the global reach of the Mongols, especially in terms of textiles and dress, on the arts and broader cultures of the Christian West. In a similar way to Khubilai Khan Hunting, Martyrdom of the Franciscans shows the reach of the Mongol Empire, and its multicultural makeup through the variety of dress worn by the khan’s entourage. The taste for eastern luxury silks by secular and religious elites in the Latin West began in the centuries before the Mongol period. Mongol textiles in religious paintings are usually worn by the most important figures such as the Virgin and Child, the Angel Gabriel, or Saint Catherine of Alexandria.
