Furnishing or Garment Fabric
maker
Unknown
Datelate 15th century - early 16th century
Place MadePersia, Ancient & Byzantine World-Asia
MediumSilk and foil-wrapped silk velvet
Dimensions57.2 x 33 cm (22 1/2 x 13 in.)
ClassificationsTextile Arts
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberT26n2
eMuseum ID721810
Alt. No. 2 (Cavallo)167Ab
Alt. No. 1 (Siple)013
Textile Database Number580
EmbARK ObjectID12232
TMS Source ID1366
Last Updated11/23/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryThis 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.
BibliographyNotesGilbert 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
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
MarksNotesInscribed (on a tag, in Isabella Stewart Gardner's hand): Bo't of Villegas May 6/95 2,500 lire
ProvenanceNotesPurchased 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.
Object/Provenance
