Muhammad Shah's Royal Persian Tent

July 19, 2015 - June 26, 2016 - This exhibition will include a portrait of the owner and a video with images of the royal family and courtly life, contextualizing the times in which such tents were commissioned and used.

This royal tent retains its complete ceiling, with each roof panel displaying birds flanking the base of blossoming branches. Seven of the original fourteen wall panels form a semicircle, which allows visitors to see and enter the ornate interior. Featuring inlaid, brilliantly colored woolen cloth embellished with silk-thread embroidery, each interior wall panel is decorated with a single large vase of exuberant blossoms set between robust birds on a rocky mound under a niche with blossoming vines. The exterior, in contrast, is covered with a plain red cotton cloth.