Persian carpets and Persian book painting share patterns because, in the 16th century, court artists who designed books also supplied designs for carpets. The Encyclopaedia Iranica says the two main features of early Safavid carpets, the central medallion and the human and animal figures, were "borrowed directly from the arts of the book as practiced in the royal atelier", and LACMA traces the medallion of the famous Ardabil carpets to bookbinding and manuscript illumination.
This page explains the shared designs, names the great carpets and the museums that hold them, shows how painters put carpets into their pictures, and ends with our advice on choosing and hanging a painting in a room with a Persian rug. It is part of our guide to contemporary Iranian and Persian painting.
Key takeaways
- The Met says that under the Safavids, textiles and carpets were made for the court "drawing inspiration from designs generated in the royal painting workshop".
- LACMA says the Ardabil carpets, dated 1539 to 1540, take their central medallion, pendants and corner pieces from "contemporary and earlier bookbinding and manuscript illumination".
- The V&A says the weavers of its Ardabil Carpet "would have worked from drawings provided by a specialist designer".
- The Encyclopaedia Iranica says the figures on some Safavid carpets can be linked directly to manuscript paintings, including scenes from the story of Layli and Majnun.
- According to the Encyclopaedia Iranica, carpets painted in 15th-century Timurid manuscripts are among the earliest visual evidence for Persian carpets, since no Persian pile carpet from before the 16th century can be firmly identified.
- The Canadian Conservation Institute gives 50 lux as the light level for textiles and 150 lux for oil and acrylic paint, so a rug and a painting in one room need different care.
One workshop, two arts
A royal Persian book was the work of a team. The Aga Khan Museum says the Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp was made by painters, gold sprinklers, margin measurers, bookbinders and other specialists, managed by three successive supervisors. The Encyclopaedia Iranica entry on carpets of the Ilkhanid and Timurid periods, by Eleanor Sims, points to the draftsman and the other staff of the kitabkhaneh, the royal "library" workshop, as the source of Timurid designs "on all materials, regardless of scale". The Met's essay on Safavid art (1501 to 1722) says that Shah Tahmasp (reigned 1524 to 1576), who had been trained in painting at an early age, was an active patron of the arts of the book, and that textiles and carpets were made of luxury materials for the court, "drawing inspiration from designs generated in the royal painting workshop".
The Met's essay on carpets from 1600 to 1800 describes the same change across three empires. Under the Ottomans, the Safavids and the Mughals, it says, carpet weaving changed from a minor craft, with patterns passed from one generation to the next, into a statewide industry "with patterns created in court workshops".
The Encyclopaedia Iranica entry on Safavid carpets by Daniel Walker is more specific. It says the influence of court designers on carpets in the 16th century is clear, even though there is no direct evidence that royal weaving workshops existed yet. The two key features of carpets in this period, the medallion design and figures of people and animals, "were borrowed directly from the arts of the book". The same entry says the figure style of the great silk hunting carpet in Vienna is comparable to that of the royal manuscripts made for Shah Tahmasp.
How did a painter's drawing reach a loom? The Iranica entry on carpet design by Annette Ittig describes the cartoon, called naqsheh: a full-size design drawn and coloured on squared paper, where each square stands for one knot. Specialist designers, called naqqash, prepare the cartoon, and it is cut into strips that sit on the loom in front of the weaver. The V&A says the same of its Ardabil Carpet: the weavers "would have worked from drawings provided by a specialist designer".
The Iranica also sets limits on this story. Ittig writes that the idea of court craftsmen designing carpets as well as books "must be treated with caution", and that no surviving carpet is known to have been ordered specifically for the Safavid court. Walker adds that in the early 17th century the close link between carpet design and the arts of the book "seems to have ceased", and flowers replaced figures on most carpets.
Carpets and manuscripts also travelled together. The Met's essay on the Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp says that when the manuscript was sent to the Ottoman sultan Selim II, the Safavid embassy reached Edirne on 21 February 1568, and one account lists the book together with a Qur'an, porcelain, textiles, brocades and silk carpets as part of the same gift. Our page on the Shahnameh in painting tells the stories in that book.
Medallion carpets: the Ardabil pair
A medallion carpet has a large ornament at the centre of the field and a quarter of the same ornament in each corner. The Iranica calls this layout lachak toranj, "corner and medallion", and names the Ardabil carpets as the best-known example. LACMA says this scheme comes from book covers and illuminated pages, and our page on Persian illumination explains the round ornaments of Persian books.
The V&A calls its Ardabil Carpet "the world's oldest dated carpet". An inscription on one edge gives a poetic verse, the signature "The work of the slave of the portal, Maqsud Kashani", and the year 946 in the Muslim calendar, which is 1539 to 1540. The V&A describes a large yellow medallion at the centre of a huge rectangular field, ringed by pointed oval shapes, with a lamp hanging from each end. The two lamps are of different sizes. The V&A records two views: some people see a perspective effect, and others see a deliberate flaw, "reflecting the belief that perfection belongs to God alone". The dyes came from natural materials such as pomegranate rind and indigo, and up to 10 weavers may have worked on the carpet at one time.
The pair's second carpet is at LACMA in Los Angeles, a gift of J. Paul Getty. LACMA's record gives its size as 718.82 by 400.05 cm and describes wool knotted pile on a silk foundation, made in Iran, possibly Tabriz. LACMA says the pair is "predominantly blue, red, and yellow", and that the medallion with its pendants and corner pieces "is ultimately derived from contemporary and earlier bookbinding and manuscript illumination". It names Maqsud of Kashan as "probably the designer who prepared the patterns and oversaw the project", and says the couplet above his signature comes from a ghazal by Hafez: "I have no refuge in this world other than thy threshold".
LACMA believes the outer borders and part of the lower field of its carpet were removed to repair the London carpet before the V&A bought it in 1893, for £2,000. LACMA says the pair was reported to have come from the ancestral shrine of the Safavid dynasty at Ardabil, in northwestern Iran, the burial place of Shaykh Safi al-Din. The Iranica notes that a study of the shrine's inventories and room sizes has cast doubt on that origin.
Hunting and animal carpets
Hunting carpets show horsemen chasing animals across the field, and the Iranica compares the figures on the finest of them with the figures in Shah Tahmasp's manuscripts. The Iranica describes the most celebrated example, a medallion carpet in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan with horsemen hunting animals across the field. Its central inscription carries a date that scholars read either as 1522 to 1523 or as 1542 to 1543.
The Iranica describes a group of 20 silk carpets attributed to Kashan, with medallions and figures "found also in the arts of the book". The most famous is the hunting carpet in the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, with horsemen hunting around a central medallion against flowering plants, embellished with gold and silver brocade. The Met owns a smaller carpet of this group, the Silk Animal Carpet (14.40.721), which its record dates to the second half of the 16th century and places in Iran, probably Kashan.
A third group, the Sanguszko carpets, is named after a former owner. The Iranica says some of their human figures "can be directly linked to manuscript illustrations", with scenes from Layli and Majnun and fighting camels, a subject first seen in an early 16th-century painting by Behzad. Our page on the Khamsa of Nizami in painting tells the story of Layli and Majnun.
Garden carpets
Garden carpets show a formal garden seen from above: water channels divide the field into beds of trees and flowers. The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto explains that the classic plan of a formal Persian garden is the chahar bagh, "four garden", a walled park with water channels, and that the English word "paradise" comes from the ancient Persian pairidaeza, meaning walled garden.
The museum showed the Wagner Garden Carpet, lent by the Burrell Collection in Glasgow, and calls it "one of the oldest surviving Persian garden carpets". It was made in Kerman in the 17th century and measures over 4 by 5 metres. In its design two long parallel channels, joined by a central pool, form the letter H and make six sections. The plants and animals in those sections face so that a person sitting at the centre of the bottom edge would see them upright, as in a real garden.
The Iranica lists garden designs, "water canals in aerial view and vegetation in profile", among the carpets of the vase-technique group attributed to Kerman. It also records a garden carpet in Jaipur, India, first inventoried at the Amber fort in 1632. Our page on symbols in Persian painting explains the walled garden as an image of paradise.
Floral carpets: Herat, vase and Polonaise
In the early 17th century, the Iranica says, flowers replaced figures on most Persian carpets. The group known as Herat carpets, woven from the second half of the 16th century, already favoured scrolling vines and palmettes, with animals and cloud bands added on some. The Met's Emperor's Carpet (43.121.1) is one of a pair; the other is in Vienna. The Met's record dates it to the second half of the 16th century, gives its length as 759.5 cm, and lists it in gallery 462. The Iranica says the pair was supposedly a gift from Peter the Great of Russia to Leopold I, emperor of Austria, in 1698, and links its design to the painting and illumination of late 15th-century Herat.
Polonaise carpets are silk carpets with silver and gold thread. The Iranica says the name comes from a coat of arms once wrongly thought to be Polish. The Met says more than 300 of them are in foreign collections and many bear the arms of the family that ordered them; the Iranica counts more than 200 known examples. The Met also records how Europeans used such carpets: "too precious to be placed on the ground, they were used to cover furniture or hung on walls". The Met's 'Polonaise' Carpet (50.190.3) is dated to the first half of the 17th century and was made in Iran, probably Isfahan.
The main types of Safavid carpet, their link to book painting, and where to see an example
| Type |
What the design shows |
Link to book painting |
Example and museum |
Source |
| Medallion carpet |
A central medallion with pendants and quarter medallions in the corners |
Layout taken from bookbinding and manuscript illumination |
The Ardabil carpets, 1539 to 1540: V&A, London, and LACMA, Los Angeles |
LACMA; V&A |
| Hunting carpet |
Horsemen hunting animals, often around a medallion |
Figure style comparable to Shah Tahmasp's manuscripts |
Silk hunting carpet, Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna; medallion hunting carpet, Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan |
Encyclopaedia Iranica |
| Animal carpet |
Animals, some in combat, among flowers |
Motifs shared with the arts of the book |
Silk Animal Carpet, probably Kashan: The Met, New York |
Encyclopaedia Iranica; The Met |
| Sanguszko carpet |
Medallions, animal combats and small human figures |
Figures linked to manuscript scenes such as Layli and Majnun |
The carpet that gave the group its name was on loan to the Met in 1990, when the Iranica entry was written |
Encyclopaedia Iranica |
| Garden carpet |
Water channels and flower beds seen from above |
Shares the garden setting of manuscript painting |
Wagner Garden Carpet, Kerman, 17th century: Burrell Collection, Glasgow |
Aga Khan Museum; Encyclopaedia Iranica |
| Herat carpet |
Scrolling vines, palmettes, cloud bands, some animals |
Linked to late 15th-century Herat painting and illumination |
The Emperor's Carpet: The Met, gallery 462 |
Encyclopaedia Iranica; The Met |
| Polonaise carpet |
Flowers and palmettes in silk with gold and silver thread |
Floral only; the link with the book arts had ended |
'Polonaise' Carpet, probably Isfahan: The Met |
The Met; Encyclopaedia Iranica |
Carpets inside Persian paintings
Persian painters put carpets into their pictures: kings sit on them, poets read on them, and lovers meet on them. The Iranica entry on carpet design says depictions of floor coverings in Timurid paintings of the 15th century are among the earliest visual evidence for Persian carpets. In those paintings the fields show small repeat patterns of squares, hexagons, octagons, circles and crosses, and the borders often carry "pseudo-Kufic" designs, meaning imitation Kufic, a style of Arabic script.
The Iranica entry on the Ilkhanid and Timurid periods by Eleanor Sims gives examples. In "Rudaki and the Samanid Amir", from a copy of the Chahar Maqaleh made for the prince Baysonghor in 1431, the two figures sit on a rug with floral arabesques in the field and a border of pseudo-Kufic script. In "Layli and Majnun at School", from a Khamsa of Nizami dated 1461, the rug shows several niches. The Great Mongol Shahnameh, made under the Ilkhanid ruler Abu Sa'id (reigned 1317 to 1335), has two floor coverings that look like carpets: one, in "Zahhak Enthroned" at the Freer Gallery in Washington, shows part of a large octagon with a dragon-like animal.
These pictures are useful evidence, with limits. Sims writes that using paintings as evidence for lost textiles "is, however, questionable at best", and that the closest surviving matches for rugs in 15th-century Persian paintings usually turn out to be Anatolian. Ittig adds that the paintings give no clue to technique, so a painted rug could be a knotted carpet, a flat-woven rug or a felt. She also notes that most floor coverings in Safavid paintings have centralized designs and curved motifs, "but none of those illustrated exactly correspond to any extant carpets".
European painters recorded carpets too. The Met's carpet essay says early scholars dated carpets by the ones that appear in Italian and Flemish paintings, and some carpet types are still named after painters, such as Lotto and Holbein. Ittig says Persian carpets of the Herat and Indo-Persian groups appear in 17th-century paintings by van Dyck, Rubens and Vermeer.
When you next look at a Persian miniature, look at the floor. The border of the rug, the pattern of its field and the way the figures sit on it all tell you something about the room the painter imagined. Our page on Persian miniature painting explains how such pages were painted, and where to see Persian art in Canada and the USA lists the museums where you can see carpets and paintings in person.
Choosing a painting for a room with a Persian rug
This section is our own advice from the gallery. It is based on the hanging, sizing and lighting guides we publish, and we say where a figure comes from.
Start from the rug's colours
A Persian rug usually holds several colours, and the field, the border and the medallion may each have their own. We suggest choosing one or two colours from the rug and looking for a painting that repeats them. A rug with a deep red field and a navy border, for example, suits a painting that has red or blue in it, even if the painting itself is quiet. Our page of paintings by colour groups every original by its strongest tones, and you can go straight to red paintings, blue paintings or gold paintings.
Balance the pattern
A Persian rug is already full of pattern. We suggest one of two approaches. The first is a painting with large calm areas of colour, so the room has one plain surface beside the patterned floor. The second is a small, detailed painting, such as a Persian miniature, hung where people stand close to it, so the rug and the painting are seen one at a time. Two large, busy patterns at the same distance from the viewer compete with each other.
Size and placement
Our hanging and sizing guide works to a centre height of 145 cm (57 inches) from the floor, a gallery convention based on standing eye height. Above a sofa or a sideboard, it suggests 15 to 20 cm between the top of the furniture and the bottom of the frame, and a painting, or a group of paintings, two-thirds the width of the furniture. Our guide to what size painting to hang above a sofa gives the measurements. In a room arranged around a rug, we suggest lining up the centre of the painting with the centre of the rug or of the furniture group on it, so the floor and the wall share one axis.
Light the painting and protect the rug
The Canadian Conservation Institute gives 50 lux as the light level for textiles and works on paper, and 150 lux for oil and acrylic paint surfaces. It advises keeping ultraviolet below 75 microwatts per lumen, and lists wool, cotton and silk among the materials that weaken under ultraviolet. It also puts most plant extracts, and so most historic bright dyes, in its high sensitivity group for fading. Keep direct sun off both the rug and the painting. The V&A lights its Ardabil Carpet for ten minutes on the hour and half hour to preserve its colours. Our guide to lighting a painting at home explains how to aim a light at the painting at 30 degrees from vertical so the glare falls away from the viewer.
Try the painting in your room first
Our room preview tool lets you upload one photo of your room. It reads the colours, light and style in the photo, picks an original from the gallery and shows it on your wall, and our team can make more previews by hand. Every piece also ships with a 14-day trial: if it does not suit the rug and the room, you can return it within 14 days of delivery for a full refund, and we pay the return shipping. Shipping is free and insured.
Medallions and borders in our gallery
Kamal al-Din Ghotb has practised Persian painting for 41 years, and works in the classical miniature tradition in oil and gold on paper. His album page Muraqqa: The Gold Shamseh is built around the same form as a medallion carpet. Its product page describes "a gold shamseh at its centre: a sunburst medallion ringed in gold knotwork", with a lapis-blue field, lotus blossoms on gold vine scrolls and a red band of arabesque, and panels of calligraphy, flower-and-bird painting and a falconry scene around it. At 30 by 40 cm it is made to hang where people stand close, such as a study, a reading corner or a hallway. His other works are in the Kamal al-Din Ghotb collection. If you are thinking of buying a Persian carpet as well, our page on how to buy Iranian art explains why US import rules treat carpets from Iran differently from paintings.
Frequently asked questions
Did Persian miniature painters design carpets?
Persian court artists who made designs for books also supplied designs for carpets in the 16th century, according to the Encyclopaedia Iranica and the Met. The Iranica says the medallion and the figures on early Safavid carpets were borrowed directly from the arts of the book. The same source warns that this view rests partly on assumption, since no surviving carpet is known to have been ordered specifically for the Safavid court.
Why does the Ardabil carpet have a medallion in the centre?
The Ardabil carpet has a central medallion because its layout comes from Persian bookbinding and manuscript illumination, according to LACMA. The design has a medallion with radiating pendants and quarter medallions in the corners, the same scheme found on book covers and illuminated pages. The V&A adds that a lamp hangs from each end of the medallion, and that the two lamps are of different sizes.
Where are the two Ardabil carpets today?
The two Ardabil carpets are in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Both are dated 1539 to 1540 and signed by Maqsud Kashani. The V&A bought its carpet in 1893 for £2,000, and LACMA's carpet was a gift of J. Paul Getty. LACMA believes parts of its carpet were removed to repair the London one.
What is a Persian hunting carpet?
A Persian hunting carpet is a 16th-century carpet that shows horsemen hunting animals, often around a central medallion. The Encyclopaedia Iranica names a medallion hunting carpet in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan, dated 1522 to 1523 or 1542 to 1543, and a silk hunting carpet in Vienna whose figures are comparable to those in Shah Tahmasp's illustrated manuscripts.
What is a Persian garden carpet?
A Persian garden carpet shows a formal walled garden seen from above, with water channels dividing beds of trees and flowers. The Aga Khan Museum links the design to the chahar bagh, the four-part Persian garden. Its exhibition of the Wagner Garden Carpet, made in Kerman in the 17th century, showed an H-shaped plan of channels and a central pool.
What is the Emperor's Carpet at the Met?
The Emperor's Carpet is a Persian carpet of the second half of the 16th century in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of a pair whose partner is in Vienna. The Met's record gives its length as 759.5 cm and lists it in gallery 462. The Encyclopaedia Iranica says the pair was supposedly a gift from Peter the Great to Emperor Leopold I in 1698.
What are Polonaise carpets?
Polonaise carpets are Persian silk carpets of the late 16th and 17th centuries, woven with silver and gold thread in floral designs. The Encyclopaedia Iranica says the name comes from a coat of arms once wrongly read as Polish. The Met says more than 300 are in foreign collections, and that Europeans used such carpets on furniture or hung them on walls.
Do Persian miniatures show real carpets?
Persian miniatures show carpets, but scholars treat them with care as evidence. The Encyclopaedia Iranica says Timurid paintings are among the earliest visual evidence for Persian carpets, yet the paintings do not show how a rug was made, and the closest surviving matches are often Anatolian. The Iranica adds that no carpet painted in a Safavid miniature exactly matches a surviving Safavid carpet.
What colours should a painting share with a Persian rug?
A painting for a room with a Persian rug looks settled when it repeats one or two colours from the rug, in our experience at the gallery. Pick a colour from the field, the border or the medallion, then look for a painting that carries it. VanArtHub's paintings by colour page groups every original by its strongest tones, including red, blue and gold.
What size painting suits a room with a large Persian rug?
A painting for a room with a large Persian rug is best sized to the furniture or wall it hangs on. VanArtHub's hanging guide suggests a painting, or a group, two-thirds the width of the furniture below, hung 15 to 20 cm above it, or half to three-quarters of an empty wall. We suggest lining the painting up with the centre of the rug.
How much light is safe for a Persian rug and a painting in the same room?
A Persian rug and a painting in the same room need different light levels, according to the Canadian Conservation Institute. It gives 50 lux for textiles and 150 lux for oil and acrylic paint, and advises keeping ultraviolet below 75 microwatts per lumen. The institute lists wool, cotton and silk among materials weakened by ultraviolet, so keep direct sun off the rug.
References
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The Ardabil Carpet. Victoria and Albert Museum. Last updated 24 September 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. The inscription and date, the medallion and lamps, the dyes, the weavers and the designer's drawings, the 1893 purchase and the lighting of the display.
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Ardabil Carpet, Maqsud Kashani, dated 1539-40 (A.H. 946), 53.50.2. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Curatorial notes 2024. Accessed 27 September 2026. The size, materials and gift of the LACMA carpet, the link to bookbinding and illumination, Maqsud of Kashan as designer, the Hafez couplet and the repair of the London carpet.
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50 Works 50 Weeks: The Ardabil Carpet. Art of the Middle East Department, LACMA Unframed. Published 7 April 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. The pair's colours and design, as restated by the museum in 2026.
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CARPETS ix. Safavid Period. Daniel Walker, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Published 15 December 1990; Internet Archive copy of 9 September 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. Court designers and the arts of the book, the Milan and Vienna hunting carpets, the Kashan, Sanguszko, Herat, Polonaise and vase groups, the Emperor's carpet and the doubts about the Ardabil origin.
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CARPETS iv. Knotted-pile carpets: Designs, motifs, and patterns. Annette Ittig, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Published 15 December 1990; Internet Archive copy of 23 May 2025. Accessed 27 September 2026. The medallion-and-corner design, the cartoon and the designer, carpets in Timurid and Safavid paintings and in European paintings, and the caution about court design.
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CARPETS viii. The Il-khanid and Timurid Periods. Eleanor G. Sims, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Published 15 December 1990; Internet Archive copy of 14 July 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. The rugs painted in Timurid and Ilkhanid manuscripts and the limits of paintings as evidence.
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Carpets from the Islamic World, 1600 to 1800. Marika Sardar, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Published October 2003; Internet Archive copy of 11 March 2026. Accessed 27 September 2026. Patterns created in court workshops, the Polonaise carpets, carpets hung on walls in Europe, and carpets in European paintings.
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The Art of the Safavids before 1600 (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History). Suzan Yalman, based on original work by Linda Komaroff, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Published October 2002; Internet Archive copy of 18 January 2025. Accessed 27 September 2026. Shah Tahmasp's patronage and carpets made from designs of the royal painting workshop.
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The Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History). Francesca Leoni, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Published June 2008; Internet Archive copy of 25 December 2024. Accessed 27 September 2026. The 1568 embassy to Edirne and the silk carpets sent with the manuscript.
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The Emperor's Carpet, 43.121.1. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Undated; read through the Met's public collection API. Accessed 27 September 2026. The date, length and gallery number of the carpet.
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Silk Animal Carpet, 14.40.721. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Undated; read through the Met's public collection API. Accessed 27 September 2026. The date and place of the carpet.
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'Polonaise' Carpet, 50.190.3. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Undated; read through the Met's public collection API. Accessed 27 September 2026. The date and place of the carpet.
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The Death of Zahhak, Folio from the Shahnameh (Book of Kings) of Shah Tahmasp, AKM155. Aga Khan Museum. Undated. Accessed 27 September 2026. The team of painters, gold sprinklers, margin measurers and bookbinders who made the manuscript.
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Paradise Garden: The Wagner Garden Carpet from the Burrell Collection, Glasgow. Aga Khan Museum. Undated. Accessed 27 September 2026. The chahar bagh plan, the word paradise, and the design, size and history of the Wagner Garden Carpet.
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Agent of Deterioration: Light, Ultraviolet and Infrared. Canadian Conservation Institute, Government of Canada. Date modified 17 May 2018. Accessed 27 September 2026. Light levels for textiles and paintings, the ultraviolet limit, and the sensitivity of wool, silk, cotton and plant dyes.
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Muraqqa: The Gold Shamseh, Original Persian Miniature in Oil and Gold by Kamal al-Din Ghotb. VanArtHub. Undated. Accessed 27 September 2026. The description, medium and size of the painting and the painter's years of practice.
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Hanging and Sizing Art. VanArtHub. Undated. Accessed 27 September 2026. The gallery's hanging height, spacing and width conventions.
Checked 27 September 2026. If something here is out of date, write to us and we will correct it.