Research Travel: Artistic and Cultural Exchanges Between Safavid Iran and Italy

Alexandria Brown-Hejazi, Ph.D. student in Art History and working on a certificate in Iranian Studies, was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study artistic and cultural exchanges between Safavid Iran and Italy in Rome in March of 2020. In the summer of 2019, she received funding from the Iranian Studies Program to conduct archival research in Venice. Here, she stands next to a 1603 Safavid silk and velvet textile that Shah Abbas commissioned especially for Doge Marino Grimani in Venice. It features a Madonna and Child, represented according to Quranic rather than Biblical descriptions, and is currently housed in the treasury of St. Mark’s in Venice. The silk was originally used to display the treasures of the Basilica of St. Mark, and is now part of the Palazzo Mocenigo textile collection.