Screen

India, Mughal; 17th century
Sandstone
H. 19 1/2 x W. 25 7/8 x D. 4 7/8 in. (49.5 x 65.7 x 12.4 cm)
Asia Society, New York: Gift of Arthur Ross, 1995.3

Provenance
Arthur M. Ross; acquired from Spink & Son Ltd., London, 1995.
The Asia Society, New York, NY, bequest of Arthur M. Ross, New York, NY, January 1996.

This fragment features interlocking forms common to much of Islamic art, cartouches. These decorative panels appear in the form of frames, which sometime contain writing or excerpts from the Koran. Cartouches appear in architecture, carpets, and even ceramics. In this piece, the larger of these chambers are filled with large double concentric rosettes, while a running frieze of smaller versions is carved along the top and bottom of the piece. Like the large sandstone fragment, which features a vase of flowers in a trefoil niche, this version shows the influence of ceramic tile decoration in 15th-century Iranian and Central Asian architecture.