Panel
Unknown1610–40
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
New York, United States
Polychrome cut-pile patterning in shades of blue, green, yellow, reds, and neutral and flesh tones on a gold metallic ground. Four women separated by large flowering plants. From left to right: a woman holding a long-necked jar in one hand while the other holds up her skirt, in which she has gathered fruits; a woman holding a pitcher in one hand and cradling a large bowl or basin in the other; a woman wearing gloves, holding a bird of prey in her left hand while about to hood the bird with her right; a woman with a long stick with which she is prodding a hound held by a lead in her right hand. The hound is straining the lead. Two of the flowering plants grow at the edge of ponds, one rests on a cloud form and the other grows among the rocks. The iris, carnation, and poppy are recognizable. Clouds and butterflies dot the sky. Slightly more than one unit of the repeat is present; the pattern fills the width of the fabric and is oriented perpendicular to the warp.
Details
- Title: Panel
- Creator: Unknown
- Date Created: 1610–40
- Type: Panel
- Rights: Gift of Anonymous Donor
- Medium: Medium: silk and metal-wrapped silk Technique: Velvet with cut loops of supplementary warps in a 4&1 satin weave foundation with three warps in each pile warp unit. Use of pile warp substitution. Use of supplementary facing wefts bound 1Z4 twill order. Use of looped discontinuous supplementary wefts bound in 2Z3 twill order.
- Viewing Notes: This velvet panel, probably produced to decorate the base of a platform in a monarch's pleasure garden, is considered by textile historians to be one of the most splendid fabrics ever woven from both aesthetic and technical perspectives, as the introduction of unlimited colors had been a feat previously unrealized in Europe.Persian figural painting and the derivative images appearing in textiles were influenced by both Asian and European pictorial sources. While the representation of undulating female forms in a luxuriant garden is deeply rooted in a distinctly persian aesthetic, the open sandals worn by two of the figures and the staff and leashed dog held by another recall allegorical figures illustrated in emblem books widely published thorughout Europe during the seventeenth century. The image of one woman hooding a falcon reflects the fact that women often hunted alongside men in Iran during this period.Prized by scholars for its superb condition, the panel is one of four examples located in museums internationally. This is the first time that this velvet has been exhibited since it was added to the Cooper-Hewitt's collection in 1977. (Treasures from the Collection, 2003)
- Exhibitions: CHM "Look Again," 20 March- 4 June 1978. CHM "More than Meets the Eye," 15 Nov.1978- 20 February 1979.The Textile Museum, Washington D.C.: "Woven from the Soul, Spun from the Heart," 6 November 1987- February 1988.CHM "Treasures from the Collection." 14 Oct. 2003 through 2 May 2004.
- Dimensions: Warp x Weft: 217 x 74.5 cm (7 ft. 1 7/16 in. x 29 5/16 in.)Repeat (straight): 216 cm (7 ft. 1 1/16 in.)
- Bibliography: Spuhler, Islamic Carpets and Textiles in the Keir Collection. London: Faber and Faber, 1978, pp. 184, 188-189, no. 108. Vollmer et al., Silk Roads. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum, 1983, p. 141. Bier, Carol (editor), Woven from the Soul, Spun from the Heart. Washington, D.C., 1987, no.2, pp. 140-141.Lynes, Russell. More than Meets the Eye. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981, p. 78.
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