Ottoman Carpets

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Dear Readers,

Throughout history, the end of the 15^th to the end of the 18^th century is accepted to be the Golden Age for rug weaving in Turkey. According to 14^th century documentations, the most important rug weaving areas were located on Western Anatolian towns; such as Bergama, Demirci, Selendi, Kula, Gordez, and Ladik as well. This trend continued until the 16th century when the Ushak was the biggest centre of weaving Areas.

Animal carpet, 14th century  Turkey Metropolitan Museum

 

            In 1585, Tabriz the old capital of Safavid Iran was conquered by Suleyman the Magnificent. The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire was intrigued by their art and design. Due to the fact that he was fascinated by the Safavid designs, he incorporated their colors and designs to the Ottoman arts. He brought this new design to his palace and decorated it using the Safavid colors and designs in Ottoman carpets, tiles, wood works, Robes and etc.

Detail of one of the tile panels displayed on the Altin Yol.  Topkapi Palace/Istanbul  Below link is Ottoman Tiles http://www.ee.bilkent.edu.tr/~history/topkapi2.html	Medallion Ushak Carpet, first half of 17th century; Ottoman Western Anatolia, Ushak region.    Metropolitan Museum

 

Late 15th. Century Star Oushak Vakiflar Museum/ Istanbul	Late 16th. Century  Star Oushak Carpet            Vakiflar Museum / Istanbul	16th. Century Oushak Carpet Islamic Art Museum/ Istanbul

 

Ever since the 15^th century, Turkish rugs were starting to appear on European Paintings. Oriental luxury goods and motifs were so much a part of the fabric of the city by the fifteenth century, with a wide variety of Islamic luxury objects readily visible in the city's households and market places, Carpets were highly desirable luxury objects, not always for use underfoot, it became very common to see carpets draped or displayed over tables. In the mid-sixteenth century, Lorenzo Lotto became famous for his depiction of oriental carpets, which he included in religious scenes as well as in portraits. In those times, to own a Turkish carpet would not only decorate a household but it would also show the wealth of a family.

Jan van Eyck (c. 1395-1441) was the first to emphasize the beauty of exotic carpets, some famous painters such as Hans Holbein, Carlo Crivelli, Lorenzo Lotto, Vittore Carpaccio, Van Dycke, Hans Memling, Gentile  and Giovanni Bellini are some of them, have incorporated Turkish rugs into their paintings.

 

Hans Holbein	Carlo Crivelli	Lorenzo Lotto

Vittore Carpaccio	Hans Memling	Giovanni Bellini

 

Holbein rugs are 15th- to 17th-century Ottoman Carpets, the patterns of which appear in paintings by the German painter Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/–1543).  large pattern Holbein, showing large octagons with kufique border, usually shows rose of diamonds or octagons.

 

Holbein Type Bergama Carpet 16th. C. Topkapi Palace Museum/Istanbul	Holbein Type Bergama Carpet 15th. Century Islamic Art Museum / Berlin	16th.  Century Holbein Carpet. Central Anatolia/ Oushak

 

Lorenzo Lotto (1480-1556), the Lotto rugs constitutes a transitional stage between the first Ottoman period and the floral art that would dominate the rugs of the 16^th and 17^th Centuries. They are characterized by a lacy arabesque repeated field pattern, mostly woven around Oushak Area, usually, in yellow upon a red ground, so called because carpets of this design appear in several of the works of the 16th-century Venetian painter Lorenzo Lotto.

16th. C. Lotto rug	16th.C.Lotto rug	16th. C. Lotto rug with prayer form

In The Oriental Rug Lexicon, Peter Stone defines "Bellini Rugs" as

Anatolian prayer rugs of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These are rugs with a pointed mihrab and open field except for a distinctive idented or lobed quadrilateral medallion. The main border may be Kufesque. An inner border may have a reentrant octagon or 'keyhole' at the bottom. This design is shown in rugs in paintings in northern Italy of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The earliest representation of this prayer rug is in a painting in the National Gallery, London, by Gentile Bellini made in 1507.

 

Berlin Bellini  {1480 - 1556)            Museum of Islamic Art/Berlin	18th.Century Konya Carpet Bellini type              Islamic Art Museum/ Istanbul	16th. 17th. Century East Anatolian Bellini type carpet Vakiflar Museum /Istanbul

 

Memling Gul designs are with octagons and stepped centers enclosing lozenges with hooked contours arranged side by side and one above the other, is to be found rug depicted in a painting by Hans Memling (1465-1494)

Still Life with a Jug with Flowers. The reverse side of the Portrait of a Praying Man. c.1480- 1485. Oil on wood. Sammlung Thyssen-Bornemisza, Schloss Rohoncz, Castagnola, Spain.	17th. or Early 18th. Century Konya rug with Memling gul design. Christies	18th. Century Konya Carpet With Memling Gul design Christies

 

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