Textile Fragment

Unknown

ca. 1540 · Silk; cut and voided velvet with continuous floats of flat metal thread · Islamic Art

This velvet fragment is said to have once formed part of the interior of a tent used by Kara Mustapha Pasha during the second Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683. The tent probably was captured from the Turkish army as war booty. These types of Safavid velvets were also used for furnishings, cushions, and ceremonial robes, and were produced in a royal workshop in Tabriz. The Safavid court favored figurative velvets that depicted hunting, a recreational passion of Persian royalty, or, in some cases, scenes from poetic texts. This fragment features a recurring motif—a young hero hurling a rock at a dragon, watched by two birds on a nearby tree.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1540

Medium

Silk; cut and voided velvet with continuous floats of flat metal thread

Department

Islamic Art

Credit line

Gift of V. Everit Macy, 1927