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Masterpieces of Persian Textiles from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Hayat Salam‐Liebich
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Extract

The aim of this article is to introduce a fine and representative, but little-known, collection of Persian woven fabrics in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. These superb specimens reflect both the chronological and technical range of textile production in Islamic Iran, from the provocative fabrics found at Rayy to the myriad of sumptuous weavings produced on Safavid looms.

The greatest number of these textiles entered the Museum's collection through the active efforts of a single person, F. Cleveland Morgan. A pioneering and avid collector, true connoisseur and art lover, Morgan founded the Museum's Decorative Arts department in 1917 and, during his fifty years’ association with the Museum, many objects found their way into the Montreal collection. Not only did he himself contribute many objects to develop then little appreciated fields, such as Islamic art, but he also encouraged other donors and advised potential patrons to follow his example. In a final act of generosity, Morgan bequeathed his own collection to the Museum, thus further enriching the department which he himself had created.

Type
Medieval and Safavid Carpets and Textiles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 25 , Issue 1-2: The Carpets and Textiles of Iran: New Perspectives in Research , 1992 , pp. 19 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1992

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References

1 A. Pope, U. Masterpieces of Persian Art (New York, 1945), p. 72Google Scholar and pl. 75.

2 Shepherd, D. G., “Three Textiles from Raiy”, Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 50/4 (April 1963), p. 67Google Scholar.

3 See, respectively, Fukai, S., Taq-i-Bustan (Tokyo, 1972), vol. II, pl. 14Google Scholar; Grabar, R. Girshman, Iran (Munich, 1962), pls. 271-78Google Scholar; , O., Sassanian Silver (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1967), illus. 90-147.Google Scholar

4 Buyid textiles with informative inscriptions include a fragment now in the Weiner Abegg collection, New York, which was deciphered by Wiet, G., Soieries Persannes (Cairo, 1948), no. 4, pp. 35-41Google Scholar; and two fragments at the Cleveland Museum of Art (nos. 55.52 and 62.264).

5 Wiet, Soieries, op. cit., p. 65.

6 For structural analyses, see Shepherd, “Three Textiles…”, op. cit., particularly p. 70, n. 9.

7 Regarding the controversy over the authenticity of the Rayy silks, see Shepherd, D. G., “Medieval Persian Silks in Fact and Fancy”, Bulletin de liaison du CIETA, no.39-40 (1974), pp. 1-135Google Scholar and the 1973 Riggisberg Report in no. 37 of the same bulletin.

8 Cleveland, 1003 A.D.; Textile Museum, Washington, D.C., 998 A.D.; Cleveland, 995 A.D.; Shepherd, “Medieval Persian Silks…” op.cit., ibid. For the Cleveland fragments, see Shepherd, “Three Textiles”, p. 66; for the Textile Museum fragment see Pope, A. U., “The Most Important Textile ever found in Persia”, Illustrated London News (Jan. 9, 1943), pp. 48-49.Google Scholar

9 Wiet, nos. 3 & 4, p. 190.

10 Two fragments in the Textile Museum, Washington, D. C. (3.240) which are published in Woven Treasures of Persian Art (Los Angeles County Museum, 1959), no. 56, p. 38 and in A Survey of Persian Art, ed. A. U. Pope, (New York, 1938-39), vol. II, p. 988. The largest fragment of the group, which is in the Cleveland Museum of Art (no. 75.38), has two complete motifs and five sectional views: Cleveland Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 63 (1976), entry on p. 70 and illus. on p. 37.

11 Wiet, pp. 66-67

12 Ibid., p. 67. This is a maxim cited by Mawardi in his Adab al-Dunya wa'l-din.

13 Wiet attributed all of the Rayy silks to the Buyid period.

14 Kuhnel, E., “Some Observations on Buyid Silks”, A Survey of Persian Art, ed. Pope, A. U. (New York, 1938-39), vol.XIV, pp. 3086-87.Google Scholar

15 Los Angeles County Museum (no. P 305, 57-1) in Woven Treasures, op.cit., no. 37, illus. p. 43; Detroit Institute of Arts (no. 31.60), two fragments illustrated in A. C. Weibel, Two Thousand Years of Textiles (Detroit, 1952), no. 120; Victoria and Albert Museum (no. T 95-1937), mentioned in Woven Treasures, no. 39, p. 31; Collection, Keir, London in Spuhler, F., Islamic Carpets and Textiles in the Keir Collection (London, 1978), no. 86, p. 156.Google Scholar

16 Weibel, A. C., Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Art, vol.XV (1935).Google Scholar

17 H. Schmidt, Belvedere, vol. X (1940), catalogue p. 475, cited in Weibel, Textiles, op. cit., pp. 115-116.

18 Ibid., p. 116

19 For a discussion of Timurid textiles, see Ackerman, P., ‘Textiles of the Islamic Periods. (A) History”, A Survey of Persian Art, ed. Pope, A. U. (New York, 1938-39) vol. V, pp. 2061-68.Google Scholar

20 Spuhler, Keir, op. cit., p. 174 and illus. 101, p. 179.

21 For example, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, illustrated in Reath, N. and Sachs, E., Persian Textiles (New Haven, 1937), pl. 66Google Scholar; and the Keir Collection, illustrated in Spuhler, p. 186.

23 For Safavid velvets, see Reath and Sachs, op. cit., pp. 37-39. For discussion of the techniques of production as well as microanalyses of metallic yarns in a group of historic Persian textiles, see Hardin, I. and Duffield, F., “Microanalysis of Persian Textiles”, pp. 43-60Google Scholar, in this volume.

24 Spuhler, no. 96A, p. 171.

25 Ackerman, P., “Ghiyath, Persian Master Weaver”, Apollo, vol. XVIII/no. 106 (October, 1933), pp. 252-56.Google Scholar

26 Ibid., p. 256

27 Ibid,. P. 256

28 Other fragments of “Boats at Sea” are in the Textile Museum, Washington, D. C.; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Detroit Institute of Art.

29 Musee royaux d'art et d'histoire, Bruxelles, Guide du visiteur: textiles islamiques, no. 9 (1981), p. 18.

30 Pope, A. U., “Introduction”, Woven Treasures, p. 7.Google Scholar

31 Los Angeles County Museum, no. 1773.5.783.

32 Reath and Sachs, p. 28; Ackerman, Survey, pp. 2123-24.

33 A coat in the Nelson Gallery, Kansas City, illustrated in Survey, vol. II, pl. 1056; sections in Yale University, illustrated in Wiebel, Textiles, no. 121, p. 116; and in the collection of Mrs. J. D. Rockefeller, Jr., illustrated in Reath and Sachs, no. 57, p. 105 and pl. 57.

34 Ackerman, Survey, p. 2136; illus. 711B, p. 2137.

35 For floral satins, see Reath and Sachs, p. 37

36 For trimming bands, their motifs and structures, see Ackerman, Survey, pp. 2117; 2123; and 2138.

37 Editor's note (ai.): A related coat in the Royal Ontario Museum is considered in detail by M. Dal Farra, “A ‘Safavid Cadabi’ …” in this volume, pp. 81-90.

38 This fragment belongs to Reath and Sachs’ Group I of metallic groups, p. 26.,