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Tile Panel

first quarter 17th century
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 462
Isfahan, the Safavid capital, and Na'in were the two main centers in which buildings were lavishly decorated with tilework. The old tile-making tradition of composing repetitive geometrical or vegetal patterns was kept alive on mosques and madrasas, but an important innovation on secular buildings was a composition of square tiles individually painted as single elements of an outdoor scene with characters set in a garden landscape. These were placed in royal garden pavilions from the time of Shah 'Abbas to that of Shah Sulayman (the last example being the Hasht Bihisht of 1669). The Museum owns three of these panels, all purchased in 1903 and reported to come from "a palace and pavilion built by Shah 'Abbas on the garden avenue of the Chahar Bagh at Isfahan." The panel here shows a woman and three men in the garden. Such scenes were among the most frequent and fashionable subjects chosen by miniature painters of the Safavid period.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Tile Panel
  • Date: first quarter 17th century
  • Geography: Attributed to Iran, probably Isfahan
  • Medium: Stonepaste; polychrome glazed within black wax resist outlines (cuerda seca technique)
  • Dimensions: Panel: H. 45 1/2 in. (115.6 cm)
    W. 54 5/8 in. (138.7 cm)
    D. 2 9/16 in. (6.5 cm)
    Wt. 356 lbs. (161.5 kg)
    Each tile: H. 8 7/8 in. (22.5 cm)
    W. 8 7/8 in. (22.5 cm)
    Top Mounts: H. 2 3/8 in. (6 cm)

    W. 2 in. (5.1 cm)
    D. 1/2 in. (1.3 cm)
    Bottom mounts: H. 1 in. (2.5 cm)
    W. 1 in. (2.5 cm)
    D. 1/2 in. (1.3 cm)
  • Classification: Ceramics-Tiles
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1903
  • Object Number: 03.9a
  • Curatorial Department: Islamic Art

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Garden Gathering, Stonepaste; painted and polychrome glazed (cuerda seca technique)
Garden Gathering
1640–50
Reciting Poetry in a Garden, Stonepaste; polychrome glaze within black wax resist outlines (cuerda seca technique)
Reciting Poetry in a Garden
first quarter 17th century
Dish with Two Intertwined Dragons, Stonepaste; painted in blue under transparent glaze
Dish with Two Intertwined Dragons
ca. 1640
Polychrome Bowl with Cloud Decoration, Stonepaste; polychrome painted under transparent glaze
Polychrome Bowl with Cloud Decoration
late 17th–early 18th century
Dish with Three Lions, Stonepaste; polychrome painted under transparent glaze
Dish with Three Lions
18th century

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