Ackerman, Phyllis

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THE FINE FABRICS OF PERSIABY PHYLLIS ACKERMANWHEN self-consciousness reaches the level of self-esteem, inchildren or in savages, and indeed even before they are speci-fically aware of pride, they must dress up. Shiny new shoes for theone, daubs of colored mud on naked flesh for the other, and theyfeel themselves enhanced and exhilarated. But the time comeswhen these no longer suffice to titillate vanity, and then fine weav-ing begins, a stage reached by the ancient Orientals long before thedawn of history, so that in the earliest matured civilization thathas yet been found, that of Sumer, clothes were already very elab-orate. Those ladies in waiting who went so pitifully to their deathin attendance on Queen Shubab, put on their most ceremonial cos-tumes for the hoped-for trip to a better world beyond, bright reddresses of fine wool trimmed with blue beads.Fine feathers were perhaps not sufficient to make fine birds, butfine birds had to have fine feathers, a principle that never lapsedin the East until modern times. Wealth, honor, authority, anyspecial distinction, were signalized in handsome raiment, and es-pecially the king and his court were marked as a class apart by thebeauty of their clothes. Usually in the earlier states, includingSumer, important looms were a temple prerogative, but later, as thebonds of theocracy began to relax so that ruler and priest wereless closely related, they became rather a service of the court andso they remained, in spite of growing competition from private en-terprise, well down into our era. Thus the most prized silks ofByzantium were those from the government gynecea and legal re-strictions not only assured to them the sole right to produce cer-tain types, but also prohibited the wearing of the most sumptuouspurple patterns by any but those of the emperor's personal entour-age.For centuries fine clothes depended for their gorgeousness oncolor and encrusted ornament. Bright, clear, persistent dyes, ex-tracted with cunning and patience from plants, minerals, and oc-casionally animal bodies, notably the red of cochineal and the vio-let of various species of Murex, were devised one after anotherand never forgotten by the color-loving East, until the shoddy fa-THE FINE FABRICS OF PERSIA 39cility of western chemistry, in the late nineteenth and twentiethcenturies, all but obliterated tradition. The brilliance thus won was,also from a very early date, made more dazzling still by the appli-cation of beads, like those on the dresses of the court ladies of l'r,of faience or of semi-precious stones, or of plaques or other mo-tives of wrought metal, in the most elegant examples of gold. Thejeweler was a subsidiary of the textile art. Later, with developingcraftsmanship these plaques or bracteates were filigreed, enameledand jeweled, exquisite and precious tilings that put to shame theirmodern descendents, the beaded or spangled evening gowns thatreappear, every so often, in the mode.From applying patterns in beads and bits of colored stone, toapplying them only with colored thread, which is embroidery, is buta short logical step, but when and how it happened is lost in pre-history. Nor are we better informed on the next logical advanceafter that, the rendering of the designs directly into the stuff it-self while it was still in process on the loom. The fashionableladies of Crete of the second millenium in some of the Minoan fres-coes uncovered by Sir Arthur Evans had handsome patterns ontheir gowns, birds, griffons, and other elaborate motives, but whetherthey were embroidered or actually woven, or if so, how, we can-not even surmise. Homer's Helen, however, was already weavingillustrative designs in two colors in a "double web," and anothertype of pattern weaving, tapestry, appears at about the same timein costume fabrics from Egyptian graves.Just what Persia was doing in textiles through these remote ageswe do not know, though perhaps we still shall, for expeditions nowworking there to fill the great gap in our archaeological knowledgeof Iran, notably that at Damghan, are making such numerous andvaried discoveries that we may yet have clues to the early textileart. Traces of fabrics at Susa have been only plain cloth and fromthese to Achaemenian times there is a total blank. Xor indeeddo we come to much more satisfactory evidence even at this period,for we have only a few representations of patterned costumes, themost important, the white robes of the guard at Susa as renderedin enameled bricks, with two colored rosettes or square jewel mo-tives in even rows that suggest, but by no means prove, a wovenrendition.But when fine weaving does definitely emerge in Persia, it is40 THE OPEN COURTmarked with great prestige. The Sasanian textiles in both silk andwool were prized by their contemporaries and their fame endured,to be revived with enthusiasm and the tribute of high prices in ourown day ; and this, in spite of the fact that it is difficult almost tothe point of impossibility to prove that any existing silk is actuallySasanian and not a foreign or subsequent adaptation of the muchimitated style. At the best there are but a scant dozen examplesfor which the claim can be reasonably well supported, but these andrepresentatives of other, related designs in other media in the con-temporary Persian arts, especially in the rock reliefs of Taq-i-Bus-tan show an impressive style of really imperial authority in whichdignity takes precedence over grace, but decorative richness isachieved by the embellishment in abstract form of the details. Itis a style directly derivative from the Achaemenian tradition, re-peating, with a perfect command of technique though in a verylimited color range, the very forms even to details that the Achae-menians also had worn on their costumes, but rendered then bythe jeweler's art, for the typical Sasanian patterns, most oftenrondels enclosing rosettes, or more characteristically an animal inhieratic pose, are but the earlier bracteates embedded now in theweave.Almost half a millenium lapses again before there is furtheractual evidence of Persia's textile skill, though in the interval manytravelers bear witness to the reputation of various cities for dif-ferent fabrics whose character we cannot even guess. But thenext silks that we have fully support in their elegance of designand finesse of technique the most laudatory accounts. Thus in theTextile Museum of the District of Columbia, which has by far thelargest and most important group of these silks, there is a completetomb cover in lavender and white, with a composition of lozengesframed by bands of running animals and enclosing in alternatehorizontal stripes floriated scrolls that resolve into four trefoils,and finer floriated scrolls against which are displayed confrontedibex bearing honoric inscriptions. An interesting, all-white piecein the collection of Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss has an illustrationof the ancient Eastern myth of Ectana who, anticipating aviation,attempted to reach the Heavens borne by an eagle. The eagle, herald-ically displayed, enfolds a prince who is protected by a guardiangriffon set on either wing and below lions rampant, while underneathSILK TISSl'KSixth-Seventh CenturyIn each design, two kings are represented riding winged griffins,between them a sacied tree.(Schlossmtiseum, Berlin)42 THE OPEN COURTruns a line of stately Kufic. This intricate repeat is rendered in aweave, a double cloth in two qualities of texture, which while tech-nically quite unlike damask, achieves essentially the same aestheticeffect. Again, in the collection of Mrs. William H. Moore there isa lead-blue satin with double-headed eagles against scrolling vines,drawn with an austerity which is yet tempered with grace, whichmakes the double-headed eagle textiles of Byzantium seem clumsyand obvious. All these silks are probably of the eleventh century.One tapestry also has survived from this time, a striking andhandsome presentation in red and yellow on a blue-green ground ofthe ancient Eastern theme of struggle between the forces of good, ahuman-headed lion, crowned, and evil, in the vivid personificationof a hissing, flaming, horned snake.Again there follows another persistent vacuum with only tan-talizing references in the geographical and travel literature to therichness and productivity of Persian looms, until in the sixteenthcentury examples again begin to appear, forming from now on acontinuous series, increasing in quantity and variety until in theeighteenth century economic and political decadence entail the in-dustry's ruin. The supreme products of the sixteenth century arevelvets and one tapestry. The velvets, almost incredible miraclesof digital skill, which is quite matched by the vigorous but finisheddraftsmanship of the design, show either conventional floral mo-tives or, in the still more complex patterns, of which the finest ex-ample is in the Boston Museum of Art, illustrative scenes, in thiscase active episodes of the hunt. The tapestry, which is in the col-lection of Mrs. William H. Moore (Page 48), likewise is dedicatedto the hunt, a splendid miniature translated into silk, creating theideal tapestry design, a broad mosaic of expressive silhouettes inwell-adjusted contrasts of fresh and beautiful tones, whereby themaximum decorative effect is achieved without sacrifice of veri-similitude.It is in this century too that the one great name associated withPersian textile art appears, that of Ghyath, whose contemporaryfame is attested in a document discovered by Sir Denison Ross, andwho has left his signature on several existing examples, includinga velvet in the Kelekian Collection, a satin illustrating the popularstory of Laila, pieces of which are in a number of museums, and,technically the outstanding piece, a compartment design also in theTHE FINE FABRICS OF PERSIA 43collection of Mrs. William II. Moore, in rose, white, and green,with every possible permutation in the weave, and a beautifullydrawn design of figures and animals.With the succession of the great Shah Abbas, the textile artreached its peak of magnificence and such an enormous scale ofproductivity that many examples are left to us. ( )f these, the hand-somest are the gold and silver ground fabrics, a solid surface ofmetal in which are embedded patterns of flowering bushes flanked bygraceful deer and brilliant birds. I hit there are less ostentati"ii~accomplishments of subtler merits; a dark blue, soft taffeta, for ex-ample, in the Textile Museum of the District of Columbia, with agroup of running deer in white and yellow worked in long floatsin a flossy silk, bound in varied patterns, with much of the qualityof embroidery. Indeed, the repertory is endless, in technique, in de-signs, and above all, in color which ranges from vivid lacquer red,through every value of the spectrum tones, to almost impalpablevariations of elusive neutrals, compounds of violet, gray, and beige.Within the last few years the present Shall, Riza Pahlevi, withthe praiseworthy intent of complementing his great administrativeaccomplishments with a contribution to Persia's long history in thearts, has attempted to revive the ancient practice of supporting courtlooms. To this end, and also to further more general aspects ofthe textile industry, a search was made, first for dyers versed inthe old art. and second for weavers. A patient search, especiallyamong remoter groups, has yielded the recipes for many dyes, butstill some of the fine tones, notably some of the turquoise and ceru-lean, that are especially beautiful in the Moore tapestry, are unob-tainable. The canvas for weavers was even less successful. Theablest that could be found falls far short of even the simpler accom-plishments of his predecessors, and the splendid personage designsare quite beyond the possibility of reproduction. The ingenuity ofengineers in this as in so many things has given us quantity andcheap production. But the final price is high, the destruction ofan art.

The Fine Fabrics of Persia.

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The Fine Fabrics of Persia.

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