IRAN, PROBABLY ISFAHAN, 17TH CENTURY

Details

A SAFAVID CUERDA SECA POTTERY TILE SPANDREL
IRAN, PROBABLY ISFAHAN, 17TH CENTURY
The green ground worked with scattered floral sprays around a festive scene of musicians, dancers and acrobats executed in bright colours, upper row of tiles missing, most tiles repaired with slight retouching, mounted in metal frame
46½ x 58¼in. (118 x 148cm.)

Special notice

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Lot Essay

While on a yellow ground, a pair of tile spandrels in the Hermitage is very close in subject and drawing to this example, showing a male rather than the present female te champtre (Piotrovsky, Mikhail B. and Vrieze, John (gen. editor): Earthly Beauty, Heavenly Art, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam, 2000, no.234. pp.246-7). Both examples seem originally to have had exactly the same number of tiles and proportions; it is very probable that they were made for the same architectural commission.

A pair of similarly drawn green ground Safavid cuerda seca tile spandrels, each depicting Layla visiting Majnun in the desert, is in the Linden Museum, Stuttgart (Kalter, Johannes: Linden-Museum Stuttgart, Abteilungsführer Islamischer Orient, Stuttgart, 1987, pl.85, pp.90-1).

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