The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 23, 2024

Tent panel of a dragon slayer

Tent panel of a dragon slayer

1550–99
(1501-1736)
velvet, cut, voided, brocaded, and pile-warp substitution: silk and gilt-metal strips
Overall: 71.1 x 55.6 cm (28 x 21 7/8 in.); Mounted: 81.3 x 66 cm (32 x 26 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1948.205
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Originally the ivory ground was covered with costly gilt-metal strips, which may have been removed for their monetary value.

Description

Iranian luxury textiles of the 16th and 17th centuries are renowned for representing human figures and for creating the most colorful velvets ever woven. Here, a dragon slayer dressed in 16th-century court attire is poised to hurl a boulder at a snarling dragon in a landscape with blossoming fruit trees and perched fowl. Even with faded silk pile this velvet contains many nuanced tones. As many as 12 colors of velvet pile were achieved by weavers who skillfully replaced colored pile warp during weaving.

This velvet medallion decorated the interior of an imperial tent, possibly donated by Shah Tahmasp to an Ottoman Turkish sultan. Captured after the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683, the medallion was claimed as war booty by the European commander-in-chief Prince Sanguszko of Poland by whose name this and other panels are known.
  • ?-1948
    (Adolph Loewi [1888-1977], Los Angeles, CA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1948-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Royal Academy of Arts (Great Britain), and Arnold Talbot Wilson. Persian art: an illustrated souvenir of the exhibition of Persian art at Burlington house, London, 1931. [London]: Printed for the Executive Committee of the exhibition by Hudson & Kearns Ltd, 1931. p. 75, no. 182
    Pope, Arthur Upham, Phyllis Ackerman, and Theodore Bestermann. A Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present. London: Oxford University Press, 1938. Mentioned and Reproduced: pl. 1024
    Los Angeles County Museum. 2000 Years of Silk Weaving: An Exhibition Sponsored by the Los Angeles County Museum in Collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Arts. New York: E. Weyhe, 1944. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 33, no. 245, pl. 59
    Shepherd, Dorothy G. "A Persian Velvet of the Shāh Ṭahmāsp Period." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 36, no. 4 (1949): 46-53. p. 46-53 25141546.
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 734 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 216 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 216 archive.org
    Bowie, Theodore Robert. Islamic Art Across the World; An Exhibition. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Art Museum, 1970. no. 325
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 273 archive.org
    Ball, Victoria Kloss. Architecture and Interior Design. New York: Wiley, 1980. p. 261, fig. 6.49
    Mackie, Louise W. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century. Cleveland; New Haven: Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2015. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 354-355, fig. 9.13
  • Muhammad Shah's Royal Persian Tent. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 13, 2015-August 23, 2016).
    Islamic art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 3, 2012-December 9, 2013).
    Islamic Art Across the World. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN (June 18-October 1, 1970).
    Islamic Art. Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN (organizer) (June 15-October 1, 1970).
    35th Anniversary Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 20-September 30, 1951).
    International Exhibition of Persian Art. Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (January 7-March 7, 1931).
  • {{cite web|title=Tent panel of a dragon slayer|url=false|author=|year=1550–99|access-date=23 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1948.205