Lacquer mirror and cover,

17th century

Lacquer became popular in Persia around the fourteenth century, after the arrival of imports of such wares from China. Local artists reproduced the glossy look of Chinese lacquerware by adding layers of varnish to painted surfaces. A seventeenth-century lacquer mirror and its cover present scenes set inside barbed multifoils. One side of the mirror’s cover portrays two finely dressed gentlemen playing a game of chess attended by several onlookers; a servant kneels to blow on a fire in front of them. Pendants set above and below the scene within the central multifoil contain individual portraits. The central images are surrounded by a decorative ground pattern of humans and animals linked in combat, their bodies arranged to follow the curves of the flowering vines with which they are intertwined.