Q. & A. 711 to 1707 with solved Papers css 1971 to date

Safavid Textiles
With the Safavids begins the golden era of Iranian weaving. Safavid silks may be divided into three groups; plain weaves, silk brocades, and Silk velvets. Such fabrics were used for garments of the princes and nobles, hangings, and cravers, and often served as gifts from the Shahs to those whom they wished to honour. The decoration consists of figure subjects, animals, birds, and floral motives. The scenes are taken for the most part from the great Iranian epics, such as the Shah-nama, or from the romantic poems of Nizami, which some depict Iranian nobles hunting or enjoying the pleasures of life in their gardens. Other Safavid textiles of the sixteenth century are ornamented only with floral designs, either naturalistic or stylized.
Under Shah Abbas the great, a noble patron of all the arts, the weaving of costly fabrics, brocades and velvets, continued to be practiced with great skill. In addition to the long-established looms of yard and Kashan, Shah Abbas founded other manufactories, especially in Isfahan, where luxurious fabrics and those for daily use were woven. A master piece from the Iranian looms of the Shah Abbas period is a large carpet of brocaded silk velvet now in the
Minor Art Under Safavids
803
Museum collection of Iran. New floral motives, naturalistic in style, became popular in the beginning of the seventeenth century. An integral part of the Iranian costume of the Shah Abbas period and later was the Shahs, the use of which spread from Iran to Eastern Europe.
Rugs of Iran
The finest Iranian rugs known to us were woven in the sixteenth century under the Safavid dynasty. During this period, particularly in the reigns of Shah Isma’il (1502-1524) and Shah Tahmasp (1524-76), Tabriz became one of the greatest centers of Iranian arts and crafts, including rug weaving. Among the other centers of rug manufacture were made in court manufactories.
Both rugs and textiles in this century were influenced by the Safavid style of miniature painting and illumination. The greatest achievement of the rug designers was the development of a plant ornament consisting of floral scrolls with blossoms and palmettes, frequently inter laced with arabesques and interivined with undulating cloud bands derived from Chinese designs, poets were frequently inspired by the beauty of royal carpet, comparing them with a ”wild white rose” or ”a garden full of tulips and roses.” Every Iranian rug shows a well balanced composition of intricate floral scrolls and arabesques forming a back ground for various other decorative elements.”1
Iranian rugs are generally classified into groups on the basis of their design rather than the localities in which they were woven, as our knowledge of the latter still remains more or less hypothetical.
There are different kinds of Safavids Rugs
A. Medallion and Animal Rugs of the XVI century.
B. Woolen Rugs with Animal Decoration.
C. Silk Rugs of the XVI century.
D. Rugs with Floral Design.
E. Vase Rugs.
F. Polish Silk Rugs.
G. Tree and Garden Rugs.
H. Tapestry-woven silk Rugs.
Hugh .I.Persian Art. P. 110.