A rare Safavid embroidered cotton panel

Caucasus, probably Azerbaijan, 16th/ 17th Century

Footnotes

Provenance
Formerly in the Collection of Augustus Pitt Rivers (1827-1900).
Private French Collection.


Embroideries from the Caucasus
by Jennifer Scarce

The textiles of Persia (Iran) have a securely established reputation for excellence in materials, techniques and design, ranging from the luxurious fabrics of Sassanian times (224-641) to the medieval silks exported to church treasuries of Europe where they are recorded and still preserved. Later, during the Safavid period (1501-1722) the silk brocades woven in Isfahan, Yazd, Kashan and Resht were highly prized in both court palaces and wealthy residences for men and women's clothes and accessories, and also for household furnishings such as curtains, bedding, quilts, floor coverings and cushions. Designs of flowers, foliage and figural subjects were worked in complex weaves and embroidery techniques. An extensive and closely supervised silk industry based in the Caspian provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran made textiles for the domestic and also export markets in Europe and Ottoman territories. Additional sources such as Safavid single figure album paintings and the dated reports and memoirs of resident European officials and merchants complement what we know of the textiles themselves. Silk weaving revived during the Qajar period (1786-1925) after the disruption and turmoil of the 18th century, continuing the Safavid tradition of brocaded textiles but now decorated with design motifs of repeated small flowers. Supporting evidence of the use of these textiles is seen in the life­size portraits in oils of the Qajar rulers and their courtiers, where details of designs are meticulously painted. Contemporary British and European dated diplomatic, trade reports and personal accounts supplement the visual evidence of textiles and paintings.

Sumptuous as the silk brocades are, they represent a sophisticated urban production linked with Persia's great cities and (apart from the famous carpets) tend to overshadow equally rich textile traditions such as the embroidered silks, wools and printed cottons used mainly for household furnishings and the fine twill woven from silky goat's hair into fabrics for shawls and coats which was a speciality of Kerman. Persia was complex and regional where settled towns and villages contrasted with nomadic tribes which all illustrate a bewildering mosaic of language, social structure and cultural tradition which is reflected in their textile products. The fibres of textiles are perishable through natural wear and tear, vulnerable to processes of erosion and climate change and destruction in times of political instability so that it is difficult to construct a continuous history without provenance and secure dates. Design sources compound the problem as people are in contact across settled and nomadic communities and absorb new designs into their work. The weaving and embroidery of the mountainous northern territories of the Caucasus well illustrate the diversity of Persian textiles. The Safavid domain extended Persian control and influence well beyond the boundaries of contemporary Iran, to Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, which were ceded to Russia during the conflicts of the early 19th Century and are now independent states. Here the disputed territory of Karabagh, located within Azerbaijan but historically part of Armenia, and with a population mainly of Armenians, is typical of the linguistic, ethnic, religious and cultural complexity resulting from centuries of turbulence. Visually the impact is seen in a group of embroidered textiles which were only produced for household use - curtains, room dividers, floor coverings of various sizes, cushion covers -where designs are influenced by the bold angular shapes of Caucasian carpets and of figural motifs derived from a shared heritage of famous scenes of Persian myth and romance (see Brian Moorhouse, Stars of the Caucasus, Silk embroideries from Azerbaijan, London, 2017).

While many of these textiles have survived in museum and private collections and feature in auction house sales the two embroideries under review here (lots 49 and 50), which broadly span the late 16th to early 18th centuries, clearly illustrate the main themes and are worked in stitches which cover the entire fabric to imitate the continuous surface texture of carpets (see S. F. A. Caufeild, Encyclopedia of Victorian Needlework, London, 1882 republished by Dover 1972, Vol. 11, pp. 389-391, 'Persian Embroidery'). They are both of a size to define seating areas and to drape over cushions. A foundation of natural linen in a weave is suitable for the double darning stitch worked in coloured cotton for the main blocks of the design and in single rows of black outlines. Alternatives were silk threads and the use of cross and chain stitches. The design of lot 50 is closely related to that of contemporary carpets in both brilliant colour and the stylised formality of motifs, all displayed on a plain black field filled with spiralling floral and foliate tendrils which frame a central medallion in red linked to a quartet of large pointed leaves. The medallion in turn is flanked by a symmetrical arrangement of four octagonal corner motifs alternating with blue triangles. A narrow border of cartouches reserved on a red ground encloses the main field but, however, cutting off the sides of the corner octagons. This possibly suggests that the design was copied from a section of a larger carpet or embroidered cover. Vitality and a sense of movement is given to the design by the inclusion of animal motifs - deer and gazelles galloping within the octagons and triangles. The central medallion contains another example from the figural repertoire of a lion attacking a deer which is a version of the classic animal combat motif which can be traced back to the carved stone reliefs of the Achaemenid palace of Persepolis (6th-4th century B.C.). Further intrusions from the repertoire of figural motifs are seen in comparable embroideries where pairs of stylised and distorted human figures flank a cypress tree, such as a silk-embroidered cotton cover in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow, dated to circa 1700 (inv. no. 30.1).

Lot 49 is embroidered with the same double darning stitch in a comparable scheme consisting of a central medallion within alternating cartouches and circular motifs but without a retaining border. The blue field is crowded with tulips, sprays of leaves and highly stylised birds, but the main images are figural and linked to the favourites of Persian romantic poetry such as Nizami and Jami (as in a silk textile of the 16th Century, woven with scenes of Layla visiting Majnun in the wilderness, Khosraw seeing Shirin bathing (both from Nizami), and (from Jami) Yusuf and Zulaykha: British Museum, inv, no 1985.0506.1). In the central medallion an enthroned winged figure probably represents a ruler being served wine by a maidservant, which has parallels with a unique textile worked in applique of a court scene of 16th century date in the Esterhazy collection in Budapest (see Ivan Szanto, Safavid Art and Hungary: the Esterhazy Applique in Context, Piliscsaba 2010, Figs 2.1 and 2.54). Winged figures also feature in other media such as polychrome glazed tilework where a panel of angels dated to 1715 adorns the altar of the Armenian cathedral of All Saviours in Isfahan. The cartouches each feature a rider pursuing a lion which is both a familiar feature of Persian art and a link with an illustrious past as he may be identified with the Sassanian ruler Bahram Gur, renowned in history and legend for his hunting exploits.