The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Fragment of Silk Taffeta with “Rose and Nightingale” Motif

Fragment of Silk Taffeta with “Rose and Nightingale” Motif

1700s
Overall: 38.1 x 40.6 cm (15 x 16 in.); Mounted: 48.3 x 50.8 cm (19 x 20 in.)
Location: not on view

Description

A luxurious textile like this would have been used for courtly robes or coats in Safavid Iran. The bird-and-flower motif is known as gul-u-bulbul in Persian, meaning “rose and nightingale.” The motif references the poetic image of a nightingale plaintively singing to an indifferent rose as a metaphor for unrequited human love as well as the soul’s desire for mystical union with the divine.
  • Arts of Iran (Islamic art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 30, 2018-October 28, 2019).
  • {{cite web|title=Fragment of Silk Taffeta with “Rose and Nightingale” Motif|url=false|author=|year=1700s|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1943.91