Textile Fragment with Motifs from the Story of Khosrow and Shirin Maker: Unknown

17th century

Asian Art

By appointment, Wurtele Study Center

By the seventeenth century, illustrated manuscripts were commonplace in Iran, but artists continued to depict tales in other media. This textile fragment relays the Shahnama’s account of the Sasanian king Khosrow (r. 590–628 C.E.) and his Armenian beloved, Shirin. With only three simple motifs, the textile conveys the episode in which Khosrow spies on Shirin as she bathes. The imagery would have been familiar to the original viewers, and thus this fragment could not only delight but also encourage discussion of this story, other stories in the Shahnama, or the topic of the beloved as an object of desire.

Medium

Silk; tapestry weave

Dimensions

8 1/4 × 10 3/4 in. (20.96 × 27.31 cm)

Credit Line

Hobart and Edward Small Moore Memorial Collection, Gift of Mrs. William H. Moore

Accession Number

1951.51.82

Geography

Iran

Culture

Iranian/Persian, Islamic

Period

Safavid dynasty (1501–1722)

Classification

Textiles

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Lillie P. Bliss (1864 - 1931), New York; Asia Institute, New York; Mrs. William H. Moore (Ada Small Moore) (1858–1955) New York; gift in 1951 to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
Bibliography
  • Arthur Upham Pope and Phyllis Ackerman, Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present, 6 vols. (London: Oxford University Press, 1938), 2097, vol. 3, pl. 1042
  • Nancy Andrews Reath and Eleanor B. Sachs, Persian Textiles and Their Technique from the Sixth to the Eighteenth Centuries, Including a System for General Textile Classification (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1937), pl. 40
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

fragments, textiles

Inscriptions

When Khusrau arrived at the spring, The flower of his desire's attainment, Blossomed on the bough of fortune

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