The “Mongol” Cloud Collar of the Serbian Despot John Oliver: An Historical and Iconographic Investigation

Abstract

This paper examines the “cloud collars” of the Serbian nobleman John Oliver (c. 1310–1356) as portrayed in the monastery of Saint Gabriel of Lesnovo in present-day Serbia. The collar became part of Mongol fashion across Eurasia during the fourteenth century, but its origin can be traced back to the seventh-century Central Asian Buddhist context. Although a great number of Mongol textiles and Mongol-like textiles produced in Italy circulated during the late middle ages, not a single material or visual example of a cloud collar has been found in Western Europe until now. In this article, we adopt an interdisciplinary approach to engage in a historical analysis of textile trading across the Balkans and a visual study of Central Asian and Persian images. We argue that Oliver’s collars were acquired through the Mongol Ilkhanate of Persia to reaffirm Oliver’s prestige as sebastokrator and Despot at the Serbian court in charge of the borders.