- Title
- Tile
- Date Made
- 19th century
- Medium
- Fritware, molded, underglaze-painted
- Dimensions
- 15 1/4 x 20 1/4 in. (38.7 x 51.4 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.84.31.22
- Collecting Area
- Art of the Middle East: Islamic
- Curatorial Notes
This tile depicts Khusraw and Shirin, the protagonists of the twelfth-century Persian romance by Nizami, meeting in a garden filled with birds, flowers, and foliage. The scene of the lovers’ encounter was frequently represented from medieval times onward, but in this version the artist updates the classic story by clothing Shirin in the tutu-like skirt popular in courtly circles in later nineteenth-century Iran. Tiles such as this one were the most widespread form of architectural decoration in Iran under the Qajars (1785–1925), adorning the walls of palaces, private residences, bazaars, and gates, where they added both color and narrative to the spaces.
- Selected Bibliography
Lo Terrenal y lo Divino: Arte Islámico siglos VII al XIX Colección del Museo de Arte del Condado de Los Ángeles. Santiago: Centro Cultural La Moneda, 2015.
Pal, Pratapaditya, Thomas W. Lentz, Sheila R. Canby, Edwin Binney, 3rd, Walter B. Denny, and Stephen Markel. "Arts from Islamic Cultures: Los Angeles County Museum of Art." Arts of Asia 17, no. 6 (November/December 1987): 73-130.
