Flowering Plant beside a Pond

	Persian, Safavid dynasty Flowering Plant beside a Pond, first half of 17th century Silk: cut, voided satin velvet, brocaded Jerome Wheelock Fund 1938.2
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A great patron with wide-ranging interests, Shah Abbas (reigned 1586-1628) is best known for his architectural transformation of Isfahan. Already the richest city in the empire, Isfahan became a major artistic and cultural center under Abbas's patronage. Because he was interested in developing arts that were important for trade, the shah established workshops throughout Persia to produce textiles, rugs, and ceramics. From these state-supported industries came luxury objects that were essential economic assets to compete with Chinese and other foreign goods in the domestic and the export markets. The elegant taste of Shah Abbas's textile workshops is evident in the use of precious materials- silver and gold- and complex weaving techniques. Patterning this silk fragment is a large flowering plant growing out of a tiny "pond" in schematic wavelike form. Rhythmic and fluid in their combined effect, the individual units create an undulating surface design of subtlety and grace. -EdeSS
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Persian, Safavid dynasty

Flowering Plant beside a Pond, first half of 17th century

Silk: cut, voided satin velvet, brocaded

Jerome Wheelock Fund

1938.2

A great patron with wide-ranging interests, Shah Abbas (reigned 1586-1628) is best known for his architectural transformation of Isfahan. Already the richest city in the empire, Isfahan became a major artistic and cultural center under Abbas's patronage. Because he was interested in developing arts that were important for trade, the shah established workshops throughout Persia to produce textiles, rugs, and ceramics. From these state-supported industries came luxury objects that were essential economic assets to compete with Chinese and other foreign goods in the domestic and the export markets.

The elegant taste of Shah Abbas's textile workshops is evident in the use of precious materials- silver and gold- and complex weaving techniques. Patterning this silk fragment is a large flowering plant growing out of a tiny "pond" in schematic wavelike form. Rhythmic and fluid in their combined effect, the individual units create an undulating surface design of subtlety and grace.

-EdeSS

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