A Kirman pictorial rug, Southeast Persia

The field depicting a nymph dancing before Pan playing the double pipe, seated beside a plinth supporting a vase with Maenads overhead with tambourine and floral wreaths, surrounded by trees and flowers set in Arcadia, which represents romantic paradise.

The cartoon for this rug was based on a tapestry depicting the `Dance of the Nymph’, from the series Subjects of the Roman Fables, after Raphael. Nasir al’Din Shah had a copy of this tapestry hanging in the Golestan Palace, presumably providing the inspiration for the series of Kerman rugs woven with this design. 

This series after Raphael was woven on three occasions for Louis XIV, the first between 1686 and 1692, then 1690 – 1703 and finally between 1693 and 1704. See Christie’s Monaco, 11^th -12^th December 1999, lot 150, for a Louis XIV tapestry, woven by the Gobelins workshop, of this subject; the plinth supporting the urn inscribed Verisfoelici/ Satir i/et Nymphae /Vicinirvurus /Vota /Soluunt.