A Safavid polychrome pottery cuerda seca tile panel, Persia, 17th/18th century

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This tile panel follows a popular Safavid decorative repertoire consisting of a lush outdoor scene featuring a vase with a floral bouquet, cypress trees, blossoms, birds and Chinese-like scrolls. The subject of the garden played an important role in Persian classical literature and was consequently represented in a variety of artistic media, and held spiritual, leisurely and courtly connotations.

A comparable panel in the David Collection, Copenhagen, illustrating birds flying among clouds, with a central arabesque, is attributed to the late seventeenth century and said to have probably been displayed in a pavilion or courtyard of a Safavid garden or palace (inv. no.24/1974).