Fragment of a velvet, silk and metal lamella, woven flat
Iran; beginning of 17th century
H: 81; W: 32.5 cm
Inventory number 1/1988
Persian weavers in the 16th and 17th centuries were able to produce velvets of hitherto unparalleled technical complexity.
The silver-colored ground of this fragment has almost completely disappeared, but its wealth of color is otherwise unusually well preserved. Nine different colors were used for the composition, which because of the technique was varied by using a mirror image of the motif horizontally and by changing the color combinations.
The monumental Madonna-like female figures are unusual. They contrast with the elegany often mannered portrayals of courtiers that characterize most of the period’s Persian velvets and popular contemporary Persian miniatures.
The silver-colored ground of this fragment has almost completely disappeared, but its wealth of color is otherwise unusually well preserved. Nine different colors were used for the composition, which because of the technique was varied by using a mirror image of the motif horizontally and by changing the color combinations.
The monumental Madonna-like female figures are unusual. They contrast with the elegany often mannered portrayals of courtiers that characterize most of the period’s Persian velvets and popular contemporary Persian miniatures.
Published in
Published in
Kjeld von Folsach: Islamic art. The David Collection, Copenhagen 1990, cat.no. 407;
Kjeld von Folsach and Anne-Marie Keblow Bernsted: Woven Treasures: Textiles from the World of Islam, The David Collection, Copenhagen 1993, cat.no. 34;
Kjeld von Folsach and Anne-Marie Keblow Bernsted: Woven Treasures: Textiles from the World of Islam, The David Collection, Copenhagen 1993, cat.no. 34;
Kjeld von Folsach, Torben Lundbæk and Peder Mortensen (eds.): Sultan, Shah and Great Mughal: the history and culture of the Islamic world, The National Museum, Copenhagen 1996, cat.no. 260;
Kjeld von Folsach: Art from the World of Islam in The David Collection, Copenhagen 2001, cat.no. 665;
Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom (eds.): Cosmophilia. Islamic Art from the David Collection, Copenhagen, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, Boston 2006. cat.no. 6;
Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom (eds.): Cosmophilia. Islamic Art from the David Collection, Copenhagen, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, Boston 2006. cat.no. 6;
Axel Langer (ed.): In the name of the image : Figurative representation in Islamic and Christian cultures, Museum Rietberg, Zürich, Berlin 2022, cat. 4, pp. 34-35;
