Hanging in the Form of a Prayer Carpet with Mille Fleur Design

Former TitlePrayer carpet with mille fleur design

Former TitleWindow Hanging

Former TitleHanging or Prayer Mat

CultureIndian

Dateca. 1800

MediumPashmina wool anddouble-interlocking twill tapestry weave

DimensionsOverall: 62 1/2 × 42 inches (158.75 × 106.68 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number35-299

On View

Not on view

Collections

South and Southeast Asian Art

Terms

Exhibition History

South Asian Textiles from the Permanent Collection: Kashmiri Shawls, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 10, 1991–May 26, 1991, no cat.

Gallery Label

Floral blooms burst from three vases, filling the central field of this textile and giving the style its name mille fleur (a thousand flowers). This textile shares the composition of a prayer carpet, with its design anchored by a central niche formed beneath a lobed arch. The delicacy of this light, finely woven textile, however, suggests that it was made to be a wall hanging, to enliven an interior with the imagery of a garden. Woven in Kashmir, India, the Islamic design indicates this weaving was likely created for the domestic market, unlike those displayed elsewhere in this exhibition.

Provenance

With Sadullah, Levy, and Mandil, Istanbul, Turkey, by 1935 [1];

Purchased from Sadullah, Levy, and Mandil, through Laurence Sickman, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1935.

NOTES:

[1] Nelson-Atkins Archives, RG01/01 Director's Office Records, Paul Gardner, box 4, folder 41, 1935 Sickman purchases en route. Before Laurence Sickman assumed his role as Curator of Asian Art in June 1935, he traveled through South Asia and the Middle East on his way from China to the U.S. This is one of several objects he purchased in Istanbul from Sadullah, Levy, and Mandil during this trip.

Published References

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and Kimberly Masteller, Masterworks from India and Southeast Asia: the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kanas City, Missouri: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in association with University of Washington Press, 2016), 100-103, (repro.).

Michele Valentine, “Illuminated by the Loom,” Hali 209 (Autumn 2021): 64-65, (repro.).

Ling-en Lu, Yayoi Shinoda, and Kimberly Masteller, “'Weaving Splendor: Treasures of Asian Textiles" and the Collections of Asian Textiles at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,” Orientations 53, no. 3 (May/June 2022): 29, (repro.).

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