"Layla and Majnun" Tile Panel

Public Domain

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CulturePersian

Titles

"Layla and Majnun" Tile Panel

Date17th century

MediumStonepaste; polychrome glaze within black wax-resist outlines (cuerda seca)

Dimensions27 3/4 × 37 1/4 × 1 in. (70.5 × 94.6 × 2.5 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the 2017 Art of the Islamic Worlds Gala

Object number2017.423

Current Location

The Caroline Wiess Law Building

113 Islamic Art Gallery

On view

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Department

Art of the Islamic Worlds

Object Type

CERAMICS

DescriptionLove is one of the most celebrated subjects in Islamic art. Romantic epics were passed down through generations in oral storytelling and preserved in manuscripts, textiles, and tile panels. The climactic moment in “Layla and Majnun,” a beloved tale of star-crossed lovers in the Khamsa of Nizami, one of the great masterpieces of Persian literature, fills this tile panel. Like Romeo and Juliet, these lovers share powerful passions, familial disapproval, and hardships of forced separation. The tile panel once adorned the walls of a palace or garden pavilion. Decorated in the Safavid color palette, this panel employs the cuerda seca technique, in which a thin cord separates the colors.
ProvenancePrivate Collection, France, until c. 2000; purchased by Marie-Laure Thiollet [unknown Auction in Annecy, France]; [Argenteuil Maison De Vente, March 13, 2012]; purchased by MFAH, 2017.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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