The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of February 4, 2023

Velvet panel with four youths smelling flowers

1625–50

Iran, Isfahan or Yazd, Safavid period

(1501-1722)

Silk: velvet, brocaded, and pile-warp substitution; gilt- and silver-metal thread

Overall: 157.5 x 72.7 cm (62 x 28 5/8 in.); Mounted: 167.6 x 83.2 cm (66 x 32 3/4 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1932.42

Location

not on view

Description

A new style depicting single figures with limited modeling and European artistic influence was spearheaded by the Iranian painter Riza ‘Abbasi and adopted by textile designers in sumptuous brocaded velvets. Even with faded colors, this grand length retains ten colors of velvet pile, a feat that Iranian velvet weavers achieved by skillfully replacing colored pile warp during weaving, and thereby creating the most colorful velvets in the world. Elegant youths dominate the simplified outdoor setting here with diminutive cypresses and silver ponds on a ground originally covered with gold thread. Fashionably dressed young men wear wide-brimmed hats, silver robes, stole-like scarves, and knotted sashes that are symbols of status and rank.

Provenance
said to have originally come from the Jaipur State Treasury
?-1932
(Dikran G. Kelekian [1867-1951], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1932-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Waley, Arthur. The Year Book of Oriental Art and Culture. London: E. Benn, Limited, 1925. Mentioned; Vol. 1, p. 59
Underhill, Gertrude. “A Shah Abbas Velvet of the Early Seventeenth Century.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 19, no. 4, 1932, pp. 51–54. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 51-54 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. p. 11, 37, 41, 64, 130, plate 89
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. p. 34, cat. no. 250
Weibel, Adèle Coulin. "2000 years of silk weaving." The Art Quarterly. 7.1944, pp. 191-204. no. 250
Fifty Masterpieces of Textiles. [Victoria and Albert Museum Publications, 1950-1951]. London: H.M. Stationery Off, 1951. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 87, fig. 42
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. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 121, pl. 137
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 736 archive.org
Woven Treasures of Persian Art; Persian Textiles from the 6th to the 19th Century. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum, 1959. Mentioned: pp. 45-46, cat. no. 89
Ghirshman, Roman. Sept mille ans d'art en Iran: Petit Palais, Octobre 1961-Janvier 1962. Paris: Association francaise d’action artistique, 1961. p. 202, cat. no. 1136
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 217 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. 217 archive.org
Kahlenberg, Mary. "A Mughal Personage Velvet." The Burlington Magazine 115, no. 848 (1973): p. 723-27 www.jstor.org
Irwin, John. "'Aśokan' Pillars: A Reassessment of the Evidence." The Burlington Magazine 115, no. 848 (1973). p. 706-20, reproduced p. 721, fig. 23 www.jstor.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 276 archive.org
Wilson, Kax. A History of Textiles. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1979. Reproduced: pl. 34
Wearden, Jennifer Mary, and Patricia L. Baker. Iranian Textiles. London: V & A Pub, 2010. p. 12, fig. 2
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. 366-367, fig. 9.25
Exhibition history

Woven Treasures of Persian Art; Persian Textiles from the 6th to the 19th Century. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (April 1-May 23, 1959).

7000 ans d'art en Iran. Petit Palais, Paris, France (October 1961-January 1962).

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).

The Exhibition of Persian Art: 7000 Years of Art in Iran. Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France (organizer) (October 19, 1961-January 31, 1962).

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/1932.42