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Object Timeline

-0001

1977

  • We acquired this object.

2005

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2025

  • You found it!

Panel (Iran)

This is a Panel. It was created by Unknown. It is dated 1610–40 and we acquired it in 1977. Its medium is silk and metal-wrapped silk-core threads and its technique is supplementary warp pile (velvet) in a 4&1 satin weave foundation with three warps in each pile warp unit; use of pile warp substitution; use of supplementary facing wefts bound in 1z4 twill order; use of looped discontinuous supplementary wefts bound in 2. It is a part of the Textiles department.

This velvet panel, probably produced to decorate the base of a platform in a monarch's pleasure garden, is considered by textile historians to be one of the most splendid fabrics ever woven from both aesthetic and technical perspectives, as the introduction of unlimited colors had been a feat previously unrealized in Europe.
Persian figural painting and the derivative images appearing in textiles were influenced by both Asian and European pictorial sources. While the representation of undulating female forms in a luxuriant garden is deeply rooted in a distinctly persian aesthetic, the open sandals worn by two of the figures and the staff and leashed dog held by another recall allegorical figures illustrated in emblem books widely published thorughout Europe during the seventeenth century. The image of one woman hooding a falcon reflects the fact that women often hunted alongside men in Iran during this period.
Prized by scholars for its superb condition, the panel is one of four examples located in museums internationally.

This object was donated by Unknown. It is credited Gift of Anonymous Donor.

  • Fragment
  • silk, linen.
  • Gift of Eleanor and Sarah Hewitt.
  • 1896-1-26

Its dimensions are

Warp x Weft: 217.2 x 74.6 cm (85 1/2 x 29 3/8 in.) Repeat H (straight): 215.9 cm (85 in.)

Cite this object as

Panel (Iran); Unknown; silk and metal-wrapped silk-core threads; Warp x Weft: 217.2 x 74.6 cm (85 1/2 x 29 3/8 in.) Repeat H (straight): 215.9 cm (85 in.); Gift of Anonymous Donor; 1977-119-1

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18492083/ |title=Panel (Iran) |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=6 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>