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Roundel with hunting scene (possibly decoration for a tent ceiling)
Persian
Safavid Dynasty
1520–1550
Object Place: Iran
Medium/Technique
Silk and metal-wrapped silk; cut-and-voided velvet, brocaded
Dimensions
99.4 x 97.8 cm (39 1/8 x 38 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Walter Scott Fitz
Accession Number28.13
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAsia, Fashion and Textiles
ClassificationsTextiles
DescriptionGround: deep cream-colored satin showing remains of gilded silver strips which originally covered it. Design: hunting scene with mounted huntsmen, dogs, cheetahs, and wild animals woven with cut silk pile. Colors: red, blue, neutral yellow, green and black.
Provenance1920s, Prince Sobieski, Poland [see note 1]; 1920s, sold by Prince Sobieski to Willy Hirsch, Berlin, and Adolfo Loewi, Venice. By 1927, Mrs. Walter Scott Fitz (Henrietta Goddard Wigglesworth, b. 1847 - d. 1929), Boston; 1928, gift of Mrs. Fitz to the MFA. (Accession Date: February 2, 1928)
NOTES:
[1] According to G[ertrude] T[ownsend], "A Persian Velvet," MFA Bulletin 26 (April 1928), p. 25, and Adele Coulin Weibel, Two Thousand Years of Textiles (New York, 1952), pp. 118-119, cat. no. 132, this is said to have been obtained in Persia between 1534 and 1554 by the Turkish Sultan Sulaiman the Magnificent (b. 1520 - d. 1566). It allegedly remained the property of the succeding sultans until the seige of Vienna in 1683, when it fell to Prince Sanguszko, a general in the army of John Sobieski.
NOTES:
[1] According to G[ertrude] T[ownsend], "A Persian Velvet," MFA Bulletin 26 (April 1928), p. 25, and Adele Coulin Weibel, Two Thousand Years of Textiles (New York, 1952), pp. 118-119, cat. no. 132, this is said to have been obtained in Persia between 1534 and 1554 by the Turkish Sultan Sulaiman the Magnificent (b. 1520 - d. 1566). It allegedly remained the property of the succeding sultans until the seige of Vienna in 1683, when it fell to Prince Sanguszko, a general in the army of John Sobieski.