Tent Panel

CulturePersian

Date1540-1570

MediumSilk, cut and voided velvet with silk pile with metal-wrapped thread brocade Textile

DimensionsOverall: 37 1/2 × 17 1/2 inches (95.25 × 44.45 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number32-80/1

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 were created in multiple hues of velvet. 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

Bold plant designs illustrate the panel. Large floral blooms are interspersed among vining stems arranged in the form of a lattice. Originally inspired by both Mediterranean and Chinese sources, these patterns represent a cross-cultural synthesis that formed the foundation of Persian design.

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

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.).

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