{
"data": {
"id": 133122,
"accession_number": "1955.52",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Fragment of Tomb Cover, before 1955. Iran or Iraq. Silk: double-face compound twill; overall: 78.1 x 66 cm (30 3/4 x 26 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1955.52",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Fragment of Tomb Cover",
"creation_date": "before 1955",
"creation_date_earliest": 998,
"creation_date_latest": 1955,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Iran or Iraq"
],
"technique": "Silk: double-face compound twill",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Textiles",
"collection": "T - Islamic",
"type": "Textile",
"measurements": "Overall: 78.1 x 66 cm (30 3/4 x 26 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.781,
"height_inch": 30,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.75,
"width": 0.66,
"width_inch": 26,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "[al-maw]t bab wa-kull al-nas dakhiluhu ya layta shi-ri ba'd al-bab ma al-d[ar]",
"inscription_translation": "Inscription on the right side: [Dea]th is a gate and all men enter it; Oh that I know what the abode beyond the gate is!",
"inscription_remark": "The vertical inscription band in Kufic is a verse by the poet Abu'l-Atahiya.",
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "inna a[l-dar ja]nnah khalid[ah] in 'amilta bi-ma yard\u00e1 al-Ilah wa-in qasarta fal-nar",
"inscription_translation": "Inscription on the left side: Verily, t[he abode is a gar]den eternal if thou has done what was pleasing to God; but if thou has fallen short, then it is the Fire [for thee]!",
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "fi sanati thaman wa-thamanin wa-thal[a]thami'ah",
"inscription_translation": "In the year three hundred and eighty-eight",
"inscription_remark": "Kufic inscription near the top in dark brown. The year 388 is equivalent to 998 on the Gregorian calendar.",
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Woven Treasures of Persian Art. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (April 1-May 23, 1959).",
"opening_date": "1959-04-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Sept mille ans d'art en Iran. Petit Palais, Paris, France (October 1-December 31, 1961).",
"opening_date": "1961-10-01T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Originally reported as having been found at or near Bibi Shahr Banu, near Rayy, Iran",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "(Mme. Paul [Margurerite] Mallon [d. 1977], Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?-1955",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1955-",
"sortorder": 3
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "In ivory on a dark brown ground a large-scale roundel is framed by a frieze of running animals containing a pair of confronted ibex on either side of a tree of life. Above is preserved the bottom portion of an identical roundel, and to either side of the main roundel is a fragment from the upper part of a repeated roundel, interrupted by the inclusion of a vertical inscription band in Kufic lettering.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80025335"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1955.52-fragment-of-tomb-cov"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Shepherd, Dorothy G. \u201cA Dated Persian Silk of the Buyid Period.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 43, no. 2, 1956, pp. 19\u201322.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 19-22; Reproduced: p. 21 (detail of inscription)",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25142101"
},
{
"citation": "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. 675",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n124"
},
{
"citation": "Woven Treasures of Persian Art; Persian Textiles from the 6th to the 19th Century. Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles County Museum, 1959.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 22-23, cat. no. 11",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "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. 215",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n239"
},
{
"citation": "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. 215",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n239"
},
{
"citation": "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. 271",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n291"
},
{
"citation": "Bloom, Jonathan M. \u201cFacts and Fantasy in Buyid Art.\u201d Oriente Moderno 23 (84), no. 2 (2004): 387\u2013400.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 387-400; Reproduced: fig. 7, p. 400",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25817939"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1955.52",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1955.52/1955.52_web.jpg",
"width": "757",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "522903",
"filename": "1955.52_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1955.52/1955.52_print.jpg",
"width": "2883",
"height": "3400",
"filesize": "7670538",
"filename": "1955.52_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1955.52/1955.52_full.tif",
"width": "3891",
"height": "4588",
"filesize": "53590008",
"filename": "1955.52_full.tif"
}
},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 133122,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1955-03-10T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 998,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "before 1955",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-08-03 14:15:05.663000"
}
}