id: 125977 accession number: 1948.205 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1948.205 updated: 2022-01-04 15:36:24.602000 Tent panel of a dragon slayer, 1550–99. Iran, Yazd[?], reign of Shah Tahmasp, Safavid period (1501-1736). Velvet, cut, voided, brocaded, and pile-warp substitution: silk and gilt-metal strips; overall: 71.1 x 55.6 cm (28 x 21 7/8 in.); mounted: 81.3 x 66 cm (32 x 26 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1948.205 title: Tent panel of a dragon slayer title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1550–99 creation date earliest: 1550 creation date latest: 1599 current location: creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund copyright: --- culture: Iran, Yazd[?], reign of Shah Tahmasp, Safavid period (1501-1736) technique: velvet, cut, voided, brocaded, and pile-warp substitution: silk and gilt-metal strips department: Textiles collection: T - Islamic type: Velvet find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 71.1 x 55.6 cm (28 x 21 7/8 in.); Mounted: 81.3 x 66 cm (32 x 26 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: 35th Anniversary Exhibition opening date: 1951-06-20T04:00:00 35th Anniversary Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 20-September 30, 1951). title: Islamic Art opening date: 1970-06-15T04:00:00 Islamic Art. Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN (organizer) (June 15-October 1, 1970). title: Islamic art rotation opening date: 2012-12-03T05:00:00 Islamic art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 3, 2012-December 9, 2013). title: Muhammad Shah's Royal Persian Tent opening date: 2015-07-13T04:00:00 Muhammad Shah's Royal Persian Tent. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 13, 2015-August 23, 2016). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * International Exhibition of Persian Art. Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (January 7-March 7, 1931). * Islamic Art Across the World. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN (June 18-October 1, 1970). --- PROVENANCE (Adolph Loewi [1888-1977], Los Angeles, CA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: ?-1948 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1948- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Originally the ivory ground was covered with costly gilt-metal strips, which may have been removed for their monetary value. digital description: wall description: Iranian luxury textiles of the 16th and 17th centuries are renowned for representing human figures and for creating the most colorful velvets ever woven. Here, a dragon slayer dressed in 16th-century court attire is poised to hurl a boulder at a snarling dragon in a landscape with blossoming fruit trees and perched fowl. Even with faded silk pile this velvet contains many nuanced tones. As many as 12 colors of velvet pile were achieved by weavers who skillfully replaced colored pile warp during weaving.

This velvet medallion decorated the interior of an imperial tent, possibly donated by Shah Tahmasp to an Ottoman Turkish sultan. Captured after the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683, the medallion was claimed as war booty by the European commander-in-chief Prince Sanguszko of Poland by whose name this and other panels are known. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Royal Academy of Arts (Great Britain), and Arnold Talbot Wilson. Persian art: an illustrated souvenir of the exhibition of Persian art at Burlington house, London, 1931. [London]: Printed for the Executive Committee of the exhibition by Hudson & Kearns Ltd, 1931. page number: p. 75, no. 182 url: Pope, Arthur Upham, Phyllis Ackerman, and Theodore Bestermann. A Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present. London: Oxford University Press, 1938. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: pl. 1024 url: Los Angeles County Museum. 2000 Years of Silk Weaving: An Exhibition Sponsored by the Los Angeles County Museum in Collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Arts. New York: E. Weyhe, 1944. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 33, no. 245, pl. 59 url: Shepherd, Dorothy G. "A Persian Velvet of the Shāh Ṭahmāsp Period." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 36, no. 4 (1949): 46-53. page number: p. 46-53 url: www.jstor.org/stable/25141546. The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 734 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n133 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 216 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n240 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 216 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n240 Bowie, Theodore Robert. Islamic Art Across the World; An Exhibition. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Art Museum, 1970. page number: no. 325 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 273 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n293 Ball, Victoria Kloss. Architecture and Interior Design. New York: Wiley, 1980. page number: p. 261, fig. 6.49 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1948.205/1948.205_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1948.205/1948.205_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1948.205/1948.205_full.tif