Peacocks have been a symbol of wealth, beauty and rebirth since ancient times — and a symbol of dangerous pride, as well. Their images could be found in early Christian tomb art, and were a favorite motif in ancient Rome and Byzantium (image 2). In India, where peacocks originally come from, they were a symbol of royalty. Indian rulers would have servants fan them with peacock feathers, and you can see peacocks on this 15th-century victory banner from Gujarat (image 3). The leaf from a 17th-century Ottoman album (image 4) is an homage to a Turkish sultan; a calligraphic paean to him in decorative Arabic script traces the inner lines of the peacock's tail. Peacocks and peacock imagery appeared in Western European design as well at this time, as on an English tureen and cover with a peacock feather motif from the 18th century (image 5).
But it was near the end of the 1800's that peacocks became particularly popular in Western visual culture. Designers like William Morris looked to other cultures and ages for a model of a pre-industrial craft-based production system where workers could find dignity and joy in their labors. Morris used our bird in his 1878 "Peacocks and Dragons" curtains (image 6) partly because of the popularity of peacocks during the Middle Ages as a symbol of Christ's resurrection, and partly because of their resonance with Islamic design. Morris had recently visited a shop in London that he described as "all vermilion and gold and ultramarine, very beautiful and…just like going into the Arabian Nights."
Around the same time, a group of English artists and designers became known as the Aesthetics. Their credo was "art for art's sake," and their goal was to produce and experience works of beauty and pleasurable resonance. Like Morris, this group was often inspired by the designs of other cultures, particularly Japan and the Islamic world. Understandably, the peacock, a creature defined by beauty, was one of the prevailing symbols of the movement. (The other main symbol was the sunflower, which turns its face to follow the sun, another apt metaphor for this pleasure-seeking group.)
James McNeill Whistler was one of the main Aesthetic artists, and his Peacock Room (image 7) is the archetypal Aesthetic interior, and is a great story: A shipping magnate, Frederick Leyland, asked Whistler to make minor touch-ups to his London dining room, and then left town. Meanwhile, Whistler created this lavish interior, painting over the expensive leather on the walls with blue paint and huge quantities of silver and gold leaf. (He also entertained friends at Leyland's house, and even had an affair with his wife). When Leyland got the bill, he was understandably stunned, and refused to pay for this extravagant work he had not commissioned. Finally, he coughed up half the sum that Whistler had demanded. In retaliation, Whistler sneaked back into his house and painted the final panel of two peacocks fighting. He entitled it "Art and Money; or the Story of the Room," and depicted one of the peacocks with a ruffled shirt like the ones that Leyland always wore, and with silver coins spilling from his breast.
The peacock continued as a favored motif into the Art Nouveau era. Walter Crane created a Peacock Dish in a style related to both Islamic and Indian traditions in 1906 (image 8), while Louis Comfort Tiffany used ancient Syrian glass-making techniques to create the iridescence of his Peacock Vase in the 1890's (image 9). The illustrator Aubrey Beardsley used the peacock as a motif throughout his 1894 illustrations for Oscar Wilde's play, Salomé (image 10), emphasizing the decadent aspect of the bird's exquisite beauty. The London department store, Liberty's, which championed the Aesthetic style, produced a peacock-feather furnishing fabric in 1887 (image 11) that was reintroduced in 1975, and is still popular today.
Peacocks remain a popular motif today, perhaps because they can be beautiful as both a graphic image and as a representation of nature. We love Dwell Studio's Peacock duvet set, with a striking blue-on-marigold peacock pattern (image 12). If you have a penchant for peacock plumes, you could put that bedding set in a room with Matthew Williamson's richly-hued rug for the Rug Company (image 1). Or you could emulate Anna Sui and eschew artistic interpretation in favor of the real thing — she has a beautiful taxidermied peacock on her mantle (image 13).
Images: 1 Matthew Williamson, Peacock Rug for the Rug Company; 2 Roman or Byzantine, Mosaic with a Peacock and Flowers, 3rd-4th century. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; 3 Victory banner, Gujarat, India, 1447. Gouache, ink and gold on cotton. Victoria and Albert Museum, London; 4 Ottoman Album leaf, Turkey, ca. 1600-1650. Ink, colors and gold on paper. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; 5 Chelsea Porcelain factory, Tureen, cover and stand, England, ca. 1765-70. Victoria and Albert Museum, London; 6 William Morris, Peacock and Dragon Curtains, London, 1878. Hand-loom jacquard-woven woolen twill with braid trimmings. Victoria and Albert Museum, London; 7 James McNeill Whistler, Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room, London, 1876-77. Oil paint and metal leaf on leather, canvas and wood. Freer Gallery of Art at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC; 8 Walter Crane, Peacock Dish, England, 1906. Earthenware and lustered colors. Victoria and Albert Museum, London; 9 Louis Comfort Tiffany, Peacock Vase, New York, 1893-96. Favrile glass. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; 10 Aubrey Beardsley, "The Peacock Skirt," from Salomé, 1894. Via The Victorian Web; 11 Arthur Silver, furnishing fabric for Liberty's of London, roller-printed cotton, 1887. Victoria and Albert Museum, London; 12 Dwell Studio, Peacock bedding, image via Christiane Lemieux/Dwell; 13 Anna Sui's living room, photographed by Eric Boman for Elle Decor.
(Re-edited from a post originally published 02/11/10 - AH)
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What a nice piece you've assembled! I really enjoyed that.
and what about the most classy use of the feather - as an earring!
I like the Retrospect posts, they give "meat" to the site. Thank you.
So nice to hear the history behind design elements! Brought me back to my old art history classes. What a treat!
Such a great little article. My grandfather, a farmer, owned a peacock and hen. The peacock was a mean, mean bird and never liked to let anyone near the hen house or the gardening shed because the peacock house was right by those buildings. The tail feathers he naturally shed were kept as decoration in tall containers in my grandfather's house and my home growing up, and I still remember playing with those feathers or just holding them and looking at the colors. Right above my computer is a beautiful ginger jar decorated with a peacock. It's been one of my favorite things since I bought it almost 20 years ago.
Peacocks are a favorite of mine as well. I was an Art History major in college at the University of Colorado and I learned that the reason the peacock was used in Art to represent Jesus was because there was a myth that the peacocks flesh does not decay. Thought this was interesting! Hope you enjoy. Thanks! Love you Apartment Therapy.
I seriously dig these posts. I loved the story of Whistler and Leyland!
I recently heard on a design show that peacock feathers are considered bad luck but I cannot find any references to support that superstition. It remains a mystery to me, and I just wonder, has anyone else heard this about peacock feathers? Personally I find them spectacularly beautiful and most recently used them to create a 'star' for the top of a Christmas tree.
I suppose they're bad luck if you were Argus. Superstition is silly in my opinion.
Loved this little piece. I, too, love the use of peacocks in art and decoration. I am a big fan of the prevalence of course in the Liberty of London textiles and in the Arts & Crafts movement, in general. It reminds me of the peacocks running wild on the grounds of some of the older European palaces.
I was at a funeral a few weeks ago. One of the floral arrangements included peacock feathers.
Rucy--
Some cultures believe that bringing peacock feathers indoors brings in the "evil eye."
Wonderful post, as always! Reminded me of a great kinetic sculpture my friend Vicky Fang made:
http://interactivespaces.com/peacockchair.html
Great, great article. And I especially love the comments!
Rucy,
Some cultures believe that keeping peacock feathers indoors will bring a curse on the daughters that they never marry.
Then again, what doesn't have some superstition linked to it? ;)
@patrick (the other one), @mabaihua, and @vividiti:
Thank You for solving that mystery for me!
Oak Alley, the beautifully preserved plantation home where Audobon painted so many of his wonderful nature depictions, has peacocks roaming free. They love potato chips. Don't know if that's a species trait, or just a southern thing. They are also mean. If you encounter one, offer him a potato chip. Or maybe the whole bag.
Some one always brings up "the evil eye" and bad luck" with out actualy holding to that spifich beleife system. Foolishness.
Isn't the "evil eye" in Turkish culture a ward against bad luck? I might be getting my superstitions confused.
I remember being younger and my mom forbidding me to wear peacock feathers because she believed they were bad luck. Of course that only incouraged me to fall in love with them.
:)
This is great! I live in Winter Park, Florida and our city seal is the peacock.
Anthro has a beautiful peacock lampshade. I purchased the cream version a few years ago and it still delights me. Thomas Paul has a few peacock feather items as well, for a more crisp, modern version.
I'm not one for suspicions but my family had the worse run of luck for the few weeks we had real peacock feathers in the house - I had a bad accident at school, my father had a terrible car accident, my brother fell off his bike, the cat died, and so it goes on. While I love them, it wouldl take a lot for me to have the feathers or the pattern in my house ever again!
Thank you for a great post. I just got a rug from India featuring 2 peacocks. Beautiful.
I, also, remember hearing & reading as a child about peacock feathers being bad luck (It is mentioned in Gerald Durrell's My Family & Other Animals) - I wonder if it was English at some point? It was the eye that was meant to be bad...
& just bc you think superstition is silly, doesnt mean that the superstition didnt exist.
Here in West Houston, there are several neighborhoods with 'wild' peacocks roaming around. Most of these neighborhoods are along Buffalo Bayou, which is like a giant creek or stream that runs through the city. The story I heard is that about 30-40 years ago, a man bought his wife a peacock as a gift. And the peacock, as described earlier, was meaner than hell. So they got him a girlfriend, and things spiraled out of control from there. The peacocks love all the bugs and critters down in the bayou and just roam these neighborhoods.
My husband and I are from San Antonio and Dallas, so when we initially drove around to look at neighborhoods to buy a home, we were totally stunned to see these two beautiful peacocks walking down the middle of a residential street. And another time on a walk by the bayou, we saw a beautiful female (all brown) perched on someone's fence, just hanging out.