172.

Textile Fragment with Figural Scenes and

Poetic Inscriptions
Iran, 16th – 17th century
Silk, metal-wrapped thread; double-cloth
25 3/4 × 14 3/8 in. (65.4 × 36.5 cm)
Fletcher Fund, 1946 46.156.7
Inscriptions in Persian in nasta‘liq script, in cartouches:

Horizontal:

The splendor of your figure [comes] from beauty.

It has given life to this outer cloak.1

Vertical:

There has never been a garment of such beauty.

One might say it has been woven from the threads of your soul.2

Through its graceful poetic inscriptions, the creators of this tex-

tile speak to us across the centuries, proclaiming “there has never
been a garment of such beauty.” Indeed, with its shimmering silver-
wrapped threads and delicate weave of soft red and white silk,
this intricately drawn textile is a testament to the weavers’ art,
deftly combining poetry, calligraphy, and figural imagery into a
complex yet cohesive design. While the anonymous poetic inscrip-
tions speak primarily to the qualities of the cloth, comparing it to
the physical beauty of the beloved, these verses alternate with
figural scenes illustrating a well-known story from the Khamsa
(Quintet) of Nizami.3
One of these five tales tells the love story of King Khusrau and
Princess Shirin. While this narrative centers on its two title char-
acters, the princess has yet another devoted admirer, the talented
sculptor Farhad. Shirin asks Farhad to cut a channel to her palace
from a distant pastureland, so that she and her servants might
enjoy milk from the goats that graze there. Farhad complies by
making not only the channel but also a pool near the palace for the
milk to collect.
One section of the textile (detail at right) shows Shirin riding
out to visit Farhad upon learning that the channel has been com-
pleted. The sculptor appears above, ax in hand, as if still hard at
work.4 Nizami’s text describes Farhad filling the channel with fish
upon completing his task, and close examination reveals a red fish
swimming in the white, milk-filled channel. In another portion of
the textile, a lofty, mosaic-covered tower — most likely Shirin’s
palace — is shown. At the foot of this structure, a small basin with
swimming ducks perhaps represents the milk-filled pool. The two
elegant figures flanking a cypress tree may be Shirin’s servants
( parastaran), carrying containers of milk from the pool to the palace. While revealing the weaver-designer’s intimate knowledge of
Finally, the small spotted, gazellelike creatures flanking these Nizami’s text, these minute details also demonstrate the intricate
scenes may symbolize the gusfandan (sheep or goats) that produce interaction of poetry, calligraphy, drawing, and weaving required
the sweet milk for Shirin. to create this sophisticated Safavid textile. dmt

248 Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art

1. Since the inscription is unclear in this portion of the textile, ours is
only one possible reading. Another might be, “It makes of the soul a
cloak for the body.” My thanks to Abdullah Ghouchani, Maryam
Ekhtiar, and Sina Goudarzi for their assistance with the interpretation
of this inscription and its translation.
2. Translation by Denise-Marie Teece and Maryam Ekhtiar, based upon
one by the late Jerome W. Clinton published in Washington, D.C.
1987 – 88, p. 184, no. 25. The precise ordering of the lines is unclear
from their placement on the textile, but they appear to form a ruba‘i;
their order has been further adapted in the English translation for a
better reading.
3. Examples of the same textile are in the Museo Civico, Turin (no. 544;
see Venice 1993 – 94, no. 276); Yale University Art Museum, New
Haven (no. 1937.4625; see New Haven 1981, p. 24 n. 17); the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (see Weibel 1952, no. 127); and the
Textile Museum, Washington, D.C. (no. 3.280; New York 1979,
pp. 136–37, no. 54). See also Washington, D.C. 1987–88, pp. 184–85,
no. 25. The present piece has been published recently in Phipps 2010,
p. 42, fig. 72 (detail).
4. New York 1979, p. 136, identifies the figures of Shirin and Farhad, but
does not link the other images to Nizami’s text.

P ro v e n a n c e : [Giorgio Sangiorgi, Rome, until 1946; to Loewi];

[Adolph Loewi, Venice and Los Angeles; sold to MMA]

173. Textile Fragment

Iran, Kashan, second half of 16th century
Silk; cut and voided velvet with continuous floats of flat metal thread
21 1/2 × 13 3/8 in. (54.5 × 33.9 cm)
Fletcher Fund, 1972 1972.26

This exceptionally well preserved Safavid velvet from Kashan is

immediately striking for its outstanding workmanship and the
bright colors of its pile silks. Some of its decorative elements,
including the lotus flowers, palmettes, and birds, are typical of
the workshop production of Tabriz carpets and textiles; these
found their way into Kashan velvets through the artistic exchange
and collaboration among artisans of the two cities. This exchange,
along with further innovations in velvet production, led to the
creation of a truly distinctive Kashan style in the second half of
the sixteenth century.
The scrolling-vine motif, common throughout Persian art at
this time, is continuously repeated in the velvet. The vines are
embellished with leaves, blossoms, rosettes, and palmettes, each
outlined in dark blue.1 The pheasants that perch on the vines with
bowed heads convey a sense of vitality and concentration. Each
closely observes the row below, where the birds are parallel, stag-
gered, and arranged in a mirror image. With their distinctive
polychrome feathers, long tails, beaks, crests, and clawed feet, the
pheasants directly reflect the style and technique found in minia-
ture paintings by Sultan Muhammad,2 head of the royal studios in
the 1520s.3 The same birds are also seen on two other textiles: the
lampas in the Metropolitan Museum decorated with a Safavid
noble surrounded by rocks, cypresses, animals, and birds,4 and the
velvet with a “standing princess and keening attendant” in the
Museum of Islamic Art, Doha.5
Velvet is a textile that has a highly complex structure. With
Safavid velvets, the technique reached a new level of sophistica-
tion, a high point in the history of weaving that has not been
equaled since.6 In cut and voided velvets, the foundation weave is
not immediately evident because it is covered by the thick pile
that produces the pattern. Here, a supplementary warp of flat sil-
ver strips was woven between one pile and the other to create a
shiny, metallic effect. The pile silks — in blood red, bright yellow,
ash blue, deep blue, salmon pink, and ivory — blend harmoniously
in a symphony of elegant sophistication. egm

Iran and Central Asia 249