Object details
Accession number
T26n2
Primary Creator
Persian
Full title
Furnishing or Garment Fabric
Creation Date
late 15th century- early 16th century
Description
Ogive, stylized floral
Provenance
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the Spanish painter and museum director José Villegas Cordero (1844-1921), Rome for 2,500 lire on 6 May 1895.
Marks
Inscribed (on a tag, in Isabella Stewart Gardner's hand): Bo't of Villegas May 6/95 2,500 lire
Dimensions
57.2 x 33 cm (22 1/2 x 13 in.)
Display Media
Silk and foil-wrapped silk velvet
Dimension Notes
Selvedge Width: 33.02 cm (13 in.)
Web Commentary
This intricate voided velvet is from the Safavid dynasty of Iran, which reigned from 1501-1722. Textiles from this period are considered to be the height of Iranian loom weaving. The Safavid Empire centralized the Iranian textile industry, which helped them create a large revenue stream for their empire, as well as luxurious fabrics, such as this one. It is appropriate that this textile is installed in the Titian Room, a room that Gardner intended to be about power and authority. The piece was probably cut from a larger furnishing or garment fabric.
Permanent Gallery Location
Titian Room
Bibliography
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 227. (as Persian, 16th century)Nancy Andrews Reath and Eleanor B. Sachs. Persian Textiles: And their Technique from the Sixth to the Eighteenth Centuries Including a System for General Textile Classification (New Haven, 1937), pp. 11, 37, 122-123, 38, example 81, plate 81. (as Safavid period, 16th century)Adolph S. Cavallo. Textiles: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1986), p. 194, no. 174. (as Persian, 1550-1600)Mary McWilliams in Alan Chong et al. (eds.) Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 2003), pp. 167-68, ill. (as Iranian, late 1500s-early 1600s)Daniela Cecutto. Una miniera inesauribile: Collezionisti e antiquari di arte islamica L'Italia e il contesto internazionale tra Ottocento e Novecento. Exh. cat. (Florence: Museo Stefano Bardini, 2012). pp. 205, 208, 269, no. 110, fig. 49. (as Persia, 15th century-16th century)
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