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Lot Essay
Scrolling arabesques terminating in split palmettes and with adjoining spiralling tendrils linked by open panels formed by split palmettes and motifs derived from the central portions of cloudbands are a standard feature of manuscript illumination of the 15th century 'international Timurid style', see, for example James, David: After Timur: Qur'ans of the 15th and 16th centuries, The Nasser D Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London, 1993, no.5 ff.1b-2a where these two linking elements alternate throughout the main border of the frontispiece of a Qur'an dating from circa 1430. A similar style which has a secondary spiralling flowering and palmette vine trailing within the arabesque spiral can be seen on a copy of the khamsa of Nizami whose illumination was prepared for Sultan Ya'qub Aqqulyunlu in Tabriz around 1480 (Lentz, Thomas W. and Lowry, Glenn D.: Timur and the Princely Vision, Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth Century, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1989, figs.88 and 90, pp.244-5). These tight spirals became very fashionable indeed in the early Safavid period, appearing, often combined with cloudband motifs, on full page illuminations of the first half of the 16th century (Grube, Ernst J.: The Kraus Collection, New York, n.d., no.114, esp.pl.XXIII, a Shahnameh dated 1539). It is not surprising therefore that the majority of the large Tabriz medallion carpets of the late Timurid and early Safavid periods have their fields filled with tight spiralling tendrils, the two different types of stem spiralling one inside the other.
It is not just in the field that the Timurid influence is so clear. This border with its interlinked cartouches is taken directly from manuscript illuminations, such as a diwan of poetry prepared for Sultan Husayn Mirza in Herat around 1490, and has an exactly comparable band, again with a variety of colours used to fill the various panels (Lentz and Lowry, op.cit., no.149, pp.359-360, ill.p.271). The same design is even used in late Timurid Herat to fill the fields of small rugs depicted in miniatures, usually accompanied by a kufic border (Lentz and Lowry, op.cit, fig.93, p.263). While this design is clearly related to the compartment field which often accompanies medallions similar to that in the present carpet, in the so-called 'medallion and cartouche carpets' such as that in the Bernheimer family collection (sold in these Rooms 14 February, 1996, lot 101), the construction of those medallions is different, each being outlined within its own space on a coloured background.
The drawing of the present carpet indicates that it was made early in the development of this design. The forms are very well controlled and there is great strength in the various colours. A similar but larger rug is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art which has all the features in the present rug, including the double pendants above and below the medallion, the lack of corner spandrels, and a slightly more curvilinear version of the same border (Dimand, M. S. and Mailey, Jean: Oriental Rugs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, 1973, no.3, pp.96-97 and fig 63 p.42). This rug, and its fragmentary companion piece now in the Art Institute, Chicago, show the early Safavid input in the inclusion of the cloudbands which overlay the scrolling designs in the same way that they do in the illumination from the Shahnameh formerly in the Kraus Collection mentioned above.
It is not just in the field that the Timurid influence is so clear. This border with its interlinked cartouches is taken directly from manuscript illuminations, such as a diwan of poetry prepared for Sultan Husayn Mirza in Herat around 1490, and has an exactly comparable band, again with a variety of colours used to fill the various panels (Lentz and Lowry, op.cit., no.149, pp.359-360, ill.p.271). The same design is even used in late Timurid Herat to fill the fields of small rugs depicted in miniatures, usually accompanied by a kufic border (Lentz and Lowry, op.cit, fig.93, p.263). While this design is clearly related to the compartment field which often accompanies medallions similar to that in the present carpet, in the so-called 'medallion and cartouche carpets' such as that in the Bernheimer family collection (sold in these Rooms 14 February, 1996, lot 101), the construction of those medallions is different, each being outlined within its own space on a coloured background.
The drawing of the present carpet indicates that it was made early in the development of this design. The forms are very well controlled and there is great strength in the various colours. A similar but larger rug is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art which has all the features in the present rug, including the double pendants above and below the medallion, the lack of corner spandrels, and a slightly more curvilinear version of the same border (Dimand, M. S. and Mailey, Jean: Oriental Rugs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, 1973, no.3, pp.96-97 and fig 63 p.42). This rug, and its fragmentary companion piece now in the Art Institute, Chicago, show the early Safavid input in the inclusion of the cloudbands which overlay the scrolling designs in the same way that they do in the illumination from the Shahnameh formerly in the Kraus Collection mentioned above.