Tent Panel

CulturePersian

Date1540-1570

MediumSilk, cut and voided velvet, and silk pile with metalwrapped thread brocade Textile

DimensionsOverall: 38 3/4 × 17 1/4 inches (98.43 × 43.82 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number32-80/2

On View

Not on view

Collections

South and Southeast Asian Art

Terms

DescriptionThe textile consists of a long, triangular panel of silk velvet woven to create an ogival lattice pattern with floral decoration. The lattice and flowers are thickly-outlined in red and teal colored velvet. The design has wider lines and different color scheme than the panel 32-80/1. The ground once had metallic-wrapped threads, which are evident around the edges of the panel, but is now a colorless natural beige color.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Weaving Splendor: Treasures of Asian Textiles, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, September 25, 2021–March 6, 2022, no cat.

Gallery Label

An accomplished lead designer undoubtedly created the bold pattern of this textile. The design forms a matrix of large and small blossoms interlaced in three layers of lattices created by large and small stems. Despite the designer's innovative work, no name was recorded. The absence of most textile artists' names in historical records is due to the collaborative nature of textile production. Many hands were involved in the multiple processes necessary to create this textile, from harvesting materials and preparing threads, to dyeing, weaving, and decorating it.

Provenance

Sanguszko Collection, Poland, through 1920s;

With V. Isbirian, Paris, by 1928 [1];

Purchased from V. Isbirian, through Harold Woodbury Parsons (1882-1967), by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1932 [2].

[1] In a letter from Royall Tyler to Mildred Barnes Bliss dated April 29, 1928, Tyler wrote of seeing several Persian velvet tent panels in V. Isbirian’s gallery in Paris, Bliss-Tyler correspondence, Dumbarton Oaks (https://www.doaks.org/resources/bliss-tyler-correspondence).

[2] In a letter from Harold Woodbury Parsons to Herbert V. Jones, Nelson Trust Secretary, dated February 15, 1932, Parsons reported purchasing the velvets in Paris. Upon their arrival at the museum, the intake records indicate the vendor was V. Isbirian, Paris, France, NAMA curatorial file.

Published References

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Handbook of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1933), 86, (repro.).

Kimberly Masteller, “From Court to Marketplace: Persian and Indian Textiles in the Nelson-Atkins Collection and their Foreign Collectors,” Orientations 53, no. 3 (May/June 2022): 50-52, (repro.).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.