The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 7, 2023

Wine bearers in landscape, from a robe

1525–50

Iran, Safavid period

(1501–1722)

Silk: lampas

Overall: 85.1 x 38.1 cm (33 1/2 x 15 in.); Mounted: 91.4 x 45.7 cm (36 x 18 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1924.743

Location

not on view

Description

Iran is renowned for representations of large human figures in luxury silks during the Safavid period. Symbolic images of beauty and love characterize this signature silk in which a wine bearer appears in a landscape with cypresses and blossoming prunus trees, a pond, and a rocky hill along with animals of royal hunts. Cypresses and long-neck bottles were metaphors for elegance and male beauty while cypresses entwined by blossoming trees, paired pheasants, youth, and wine impart themes of love. The asymmetrical composition contrasts vitality and order, which contributes to concealing the repeated design inherent in patterned silks.

Provenance
?-1924
Mrs. Chauncey J. [Mary Anne Italia Mitchell] Blair [1856-1940], Chicago, IL, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
1924-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1925. Reproduced: p. 65 archive.org
Milliken, William Mathewson, et al. “In Memoriam: Jeptha Homer Wade.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 13, no. 4, 1926, pp. 63–91. Reproduced: p. 79 www.jstor.org
Reath, Nancy Andrews, 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: Pub. for Pennsylvania Museum of Art by Yale University Press, 1937. Reproduced: pl. 64
Pope, Arthur Upham, Phyllis Ackerman, and Theodore Bestermann. A Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present. London: Oxford University Press, 1938. Vol. III, p. 2084, and Vol. VI, pl. 1011
2000 Years of Silk Weaving: An Exhibition Sponsored by the Los Angeles County Museum in Collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Arts. New York: E. Weyhe, 1944. cat. no. 258
Weibel, Adèle Coulin. Two Thousand Years of Textiles; The Figured Textiles of Europe and the Near East. New York: Published for the Detroit Institute of Arts [by] Pantheon Books, 1952. pl. 132
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 733 archive.org
Flemming, Ernst, and Renate Jaques. Encyclopedia of Textiles: Decorative Fabrics from Antiquity to the Beginning of the 19th Century, Including the Far East and Peru. New York: Praeger, 1958. p. 255
Woven Treasures of Persian Art; Persian Textiles from the 6th to the 19th Century. Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles County Museum, 1959. Mentioned: p. 35, cat. no. 56
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 216 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 216 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 273 archive.org
Wearden, Jennifer Mary, and Patricia L. Baker. Iranian Textiles. London: V & A Pub, 2010. p. 13, pl. 3
Mackie, 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. 346-347, fig. 9.5
Exhibition history

Exhibition of Persian Art. Pennsylvania Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (October 11, 1926-January 1, 1927).

Exhibition of Persian Art. Iranian Institute, New York, NY (April 22-July 1, 1940).

Exhibition of textiles from the First to the Nineteenth Century. Grand Rapids Art Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI (November 3-30, 1941).

Masterpieces in Weaving. Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO ([May 15-June 30, 1945).

Masterpieces of the Weavers' Art. Hackley Art Gallery, Muskegon, MI (October 7-November 4, 1957).

Woven Treasures of Persian Art. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (April 1-May 23, 1959).

Lost Cities. Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO (March 20-May 20, 1960).

Islamic Art Across the World. Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN (June 15-October 1, 1970).

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

2000 Years of Silk Weaving. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 18-April 16, 1944).

For Modern America from the Ancient Near East. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-March 21, 1948).

Lost Cities. Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO (organizer) (March 20-May 20, 1960).

Islamic Art. Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN (organizer) (June 15-October 1, 1970).

Luxuriance: Silks from Islamic Lands, 1250-1900. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 14, 2013-June 23, 2014).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1924.743