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Textile Fragment

ca. 1540
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 462
This velvet fragment is said to have once formed part of the interior of a tent used by Kara Mustapha Pasha during the second Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683. The tent probably was captured from the Turkish army as war booty. These types of Safavid velvets were also used for furnishings, cushions, and ceremonial robes, and were produced in a royal workshop in Tabriz. The Safavid court favored figurative velvets that depicted hunting, a recreational passion of Persian royalty, or, in some cases, scenes from poetic texts. This fragment features a recurring motif—a young hero hurling a rock at a dragon, watched by two birds on a nearby tree.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Textile Fragment
  • Date: ca. 1540
  • Geography: Attributed to Iran
  • Medium: Silk; cut and voided velvet with continuous floats of flat metal thread
  • Dimensions: Textile: L. 23 1/2 in. (59.7 cm)
    W. 18 3/16 in. (46.2 cm)
    Mount: L. 29 1/2 in. (74.9 cm)
    W. 24 in. (61 cm)
    Wt. 10 lbs. (4.5 kg)
  • Classification: Textiles
  • Credit Line: Gift of V. Everit Macy, 1927
  • Object Number: 27.51.1
  • Curatorial Department: Islamic Art

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Textile Fragment, Silk; cut and voided velvet with continuous floats of flat metal thread
Textile Fragment
ca. 1540
The Emperor's Carpet, Silk (warp and weft), wool (pile); asymmetrically knotted pile
The Emperor's Carpet
second half 16th century
Kitab suwar al-kawakib al-thabita (Book of the Images of the Fixed Stars) of al-Sufi, `Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi Iranian, Ink and gold on paper; leather binding
Kitab suwar al-kawakib al-thabita (Book of the Images of the Fixed Stars) of al-Sufi
`Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi
late 15th century
Velvet with Figural Imagery, Silk, metal wrapped thread; cut and voided velvet
Velvet with Figural Imagery
mid-16th century
"The Feast of Sada", Folio 22v from the Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Shah Tahmasp, Abu'l Qasim Firdausi Iranian, Opaque watercolor, ink, silver, and gold on paper
"The Feast of Sada", Folio 22v from the Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Shah Tahmasp
Abu'l Qasim Firdausi
Sultan Muhammad
ca. 1525

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