Miniature of a Persian Lady Embroidering

Fragment of a Persian miniature  showing a woman embroidering, 16th century,  Iran? Fragment of a Persian miniature showing a woman embroidering, 16th century, Iran? Courtesy Freer Gallery, of Art, Washington D.C., acc. no. F1946.12.215.

A rare sixteenth century Iranian miniature showes a lady working her embroidery. The image comes from a folio of the late fifteenth century Persian work, the Haft Aurang (‘Seven Thrones’), by Nur ad-Din Abd-ar Rahman Jami (d. 1492), from the verso: 'The Flight of the Tortoise'. The manuscript is now in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA.

The illuminated manuscript was made for the Safavid sultan, Ibrahim Mirza (1540-1577). To the left, just in front of an elaborate tent, there is a Safavid woman embroidering a piece of white cloth. There would appear to be a printed or drawn design on the cloth. Unfortunately there are not enough details to indicate what type of embroidery she is carrying out.

There are relatively few images of Safavid women in manuscripts of the period and so far this is the only one that shows a woman embroidering. Other manuscripts tend to show women dancing or making music.

Freer Gallery of Art online catalogue (retrieved 29 June 2016).

GVE

Last modified on Sunday, 13 November 2016 17:37