Object details
Object number
T26n2
Creator(s)
Persian
Title
Furnishing or Garment Fabric
Date
late 15th century - early 16th century
Medium
Silk and foil-wrapped silk velvet
Description
Ogive, stylized floral
Dimensions
57.2 x 33 cm (22 1/2 x 13 in.)
Additional Dimensions
Selvedge Width: 33.02 cm (13 in.)
Signatures, inscriptions, and markings
Inscribed (on a tag, in Isabella Stewart Gardner's hand): Bo't of Villegas May 6/95 2,500 lire
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.
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.
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)
Yael Rice, "From Paper to Stone: The Gardner's Persian Cenotaph," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 12 November 2024, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/paper-stone-gardners-persian-cenotaph
Gallery
Titian Room
Rights and reproductions
The use of images, text, and all other media found on this website is limited. Please review Rights and Reproductions for details.
