This rug belongs to a group of carpets known as the 'Ghirlandaio' carpets after a rug that was depicted by Domenico Ghirlandaio in a mid fifthteenth century, Madonna Enthroned (see Gantzhorn, Volkmar: The Christian Oriental Carpet, Köln, 1991, ill.482). While the exact type of rug depicted in this painting has never been found, the field design of the present lot and associated carpets are similar in style to the painted rug. This field design is an extremely old design and can be encountered in Turkish carpets most likely dating back to the fifthteenth century and continues to be seen well into the nineteenth century. Serare Yetkin classifies the rug depicted by Ghirlandaio, and by association similar rugs, as type III Holbien carpets based on the octagon-in-squares centers of the medallions (Yetkin, S.: Historical Turkish Carpets, Istanbul, 1981, pp.59-65).
Two other rugs similar to the present piece are also known to exist, one in a German private collection (see Volkmann, M.: Alte Orientteppiche, Munich, 1985, no.18) and the other with Eberhart Herrmann (see Herrmann, E.: Seltene Orientteppiche X, Munich, 1988, no.13). The Volkmann and the Bernheimer examples share nearly the exact same design and colouration and differ mainly in their minor border motifs. The Herrmann rug has only one medallion which is set against a more open red field. All three rugs share the same cruciform motif border. This cruciform motif can be seen in other Anatolian rugs both as border and field design and is the subject of much discussion by Werner Brggemann (Brggemann, W. and Böhmer, H.: Rugs of the Peasants and Nomads of Anatolia,Munich, 1983, pp.60-70). Writing in Volkmann, Brggemann points out that the use of this border divided into quadrants by colour is uncommon in connection with 'Ghirlandaio' carpets (Volkmann, op. cit., p.56).