Tent panel of a dragon slayer
Unknown Artist
1550–99
Medium
velvet, cut, voided, brocaded, and pile-warp substitution: silk and gilt-metal strips
Dimensions
71.1 × 55.6 cm · mounted: 81.3 × 66 cm
Classification
Velvet
Department
Textiles
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Accession Number
1948.205
About this artwork
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 ...