Page 32 - 2021 April 1, ART OF THE ISLAMIC AND Indian Worlds Including Oriental Rugs, Christie's London

19
A SILK BROCADE FRAGMENT
SAFAVID IRAN, SECOND HALF 16TH CENTURY
Woven with a repeated design of paired pheasants with dotted plumage
and long tails in green, white and yellow alternating with a large spray of
carnations, smaller grass tufts scattered between, wear to lower part,
mounted on cloth on a stretcher
17 x 4¡in. (43.3 x 11cm.)
£7,000-10,000 US$9,800-14,000
€8,100-12,000
The repeated pheasants on this silk panel are very close to those painted
on a lacquer binding of a copy of Arifi's Guy wa Chowgan, written by Shah
Tahmasp himself and dated 1524-25 (in the National Library of Russia in
St Petersburg, Jon Thomson and Sheila R. Canby (ed.), Hunt for Paradise,
New York, 2003, p.198, cat.7.13). The binding depicts pheasants in a similar
position, with their heads turning backward, and repeated in alternated
directions. This motif is seen earlier on a lacquer cover of a Diwan of Husayni
dated 1492 (Thomson and Canby, op.cit., cat.7.2). With its repeated motifs,
the composition of the binding was appropriate to be copied onto textile.
In his discussion of these pieces, Thompson indicates that motifs evolved
from animal themes of chinoiserie type towards figural themes and that both
gradually developed together in the second quarter of the 16th century.
Other pheasants in similar positions appear on a number of silk Kashan
carpets from the period of Shah Tahmasp (r.1525-76) and the motif seems
to have become particularly popular around the mid-16th century. A carpet
fragment in the Brooklyn Museum of Art, datable to 1525-50 and a complete
carpet in the Gulbenkian Foundation are decorated with these pheasants
(Thompson and Canby, op.cit., cat.12.16, 12.17).
The bouquets of carnations appearing between the pheasants would
suggest a slightly later date however, possibly the second half of the 16th
century. Although slightly different, the bouquets of carnations appearing
on two textile fragments preserved in the Musée des Textiles in Lyons can
be paralleled to the present panel. They are datable to the early 17th century
(Jean-Michel Tuchscherer, Étoffes Merveilleuses du Musée Historique des
Tissus, Lyon, 1976, cat.57 and 158).

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