LABEL COPY FOR: "Floral Designs in Textiles" The Baltimore Museum of Art July 25-Nov. 12, 1989 Curator: Anita Jones Fragment of Metal-ground Fabric India (17th century) Silk, metallic-wrapped wefts The Baltimore Museum of Art Gift of Saidie May and Blanche Adler BMA 1929.17.10J Flower designs in Persian textiles tend to follow two conventional patterns. Either they are somewhat stiff and symmetrical, or they are asymmetrical, the flowers bending in a graceful curve, leaning to the left in one row and to the right in the next. During the reign of the Mughal emperors from the second half of the 16th century, Indian textiles exhibited Persian influence; therfore it is not always possible to distinguish between textiles from these two cultures. Shiny metal-ground textiles with similar patterns are found in both Mughal and Safavid (Persian) paintings of the 17th century. According to recent studies, the different weave structures seen in these metal-ground textiles may eventually be used to distinguish their origin.