The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 19, 2024
Wall cover with flora, peacocks, and portrait medallions
1800s
Location: not on view
Description
The European fashion of installing Chinese export silks with painted decoration as luxurious wall coverings may have inspired this exceptional Iranian silk. European engravings, which had flooded the Iranian market by the 19th century, most likely inspired the pattern. This rare silk fabric with painted figural and foliate decoration may have been a luxurious wall covering in a palace or grand mansion in the city of Kashan where mural paintings display similar 19th-century designs. Glistening silver pigment originally formed the palmette-leaf compartment outlines (now mostly deep yellow) that display colorful blossoming plants enlivened with now tarnished silver peacocks. At their junctures, portrait medallions of Iranian princesses are distinctly Qajar in attire and style, as are the composite blossoming plants.- Baker, Patricia L. Islamic Textiles. 1995. p. 124-25Mackie, Louise W. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century. Cleveland; New Haven: Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2015. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 396-397, fig. 9.58
- Luxuriance: Silks from Islamic Lands, 1250-1900. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 14, 2013-June 23, 2014).
- {{cite web|title=Wall cover with flora, peacocks, and portrait medallions|url=false|author=|year=1800s|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1916.1483