Tent Panel thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
South Asia Gallery, Room 41

Tent Panel

late 17th century-early 18th century (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Continuous cloth panels like this could be used as screens around areas of an encampment, especially to surround the ruler's enclosure. These screens were often highly decorative on the inner surface, usually with plain red exteriors. It has been plausibly suggested that this textile is not a screen but a set of prayer mats, and the plain red stripes between each niche might indicate that they were intended to be cut and used separately for that purpose. Cotton prayer mats of similar format are made in South-East India and Iran.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Printed, painted and dyed cotton
Brief description
Tent panel (qanat) or row of prayer mats with 5 niches of printed, painted and dyed cotton, possibly made in Deccan or Burhanpur, late 17th century or early 18th century. The niches are divided with plain red strips which could be where they are meant to be cut and used separately.
Physical description
Tent panel (qanat) or saf (row of prayer mats) of printed, painted and dyed cotton. With a row of five arched panels, each with floral designs in the spandrels and decorative floral meander borders in shades of red and yellow against an undyed ground, and forming a horizontal screen or row of individual mats.
Dimensions
  • Height: 134.5cm
  • Height: 165.5in
  • Width: 53in
Gallery label
TENT PANELS (QANAT): Cotton, printed, painted and dyed, Deccan, Burhanpur, Late 17th and early 18th century. Continuous cloth panels like this were used as screens around areas of an encampment, especially to isolate the ruler's enclosure. They were often highly decorative but plain red examples are often seen in paintings.(Nehru Gallery, 2001)
Credit line
Given by G. P. Baker
Object history
Given by G.P.Baker.
Subject depicted
Summary
Continuous cloth panels like this could be used as screens around areas of an encampment, especially to surround the ruler's enclosure. These screens were often highly decorative on the inner surface, usually with plain red exteriors. It has been plausibly suggested that this textile is not a screen but a set of prayer mats, and the plain red stripes between each niche might indicate that they were intended to be cut and used separately for that purpose. Cotton prayer mats of similar format are made in South-East India and Iran.
Associated object
IM.23-1936 (Version)
Bibliographic reference
The Indian Heritage. Court life and Arts under Mughal Rule London: The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1982 Number: ISBN 0 906969 26 3 p. 90, cat. no. 231. Veronica Murphy
Collection
Accession number
IS.56-1950

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Record createdJuly 3, 2008
Record URL
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