Khusrau Surprising Shirin While Bathing (1550–99): Art, History and Details

Khusrau Surprising Shirin While Bathing (1550–99) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

These velvet fragments depict an episode from the Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami (1141–1209), in which the lovers Khusrau and Shirin first see each other. A pre-Islamic king of Iran, Khusrau has fallen in love with Shirin after seeing her portrait and is traveling to meet her when he happens across her bathing in a stream. Not yet realizing that she is Shirin, Khusrau is transfixed by the woman’s beauty and covets both her and her magnificent black horse. The horse’s mane is just visible here, and she has placed her crown and tunic atop a branch.

Object facts

• Title: Khusrau Surprising Shirin While Bathing
• Date: 1550–99
• Culture: Iran, Kashan, Safavid period (1501-1722)
• Type: Velvet
• Technique: Silk: velvet, pile-warp substitution
• Dimensions: Mounted: 44.5 x 26.7 cm (17 1/2 x 10 1/2 in.)
• Collection: T - Islamic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1944.499

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Bier, Carol. Woven from the Soul, Spun from the Heart: Textile Arts of Safavid and Qajar Iran, 16. - 19. Centuries. 1987.
• Underhill, Gertrude. "Fragments of a Khusraw and Shirin Velvet." CMA Bulletin 32 (June 1945): 95-97.
• Kendrick, F.A. "Persian Stuffs with Figural Subjects." Burlington Magazine 37 (Nov. 1920): 237.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.