SOUTH EAST SPAIN, EARLY 16TH CENTURY

In the late fifteenth century the province of Granada was still under Islamic rule and the influence of Islamic design was clearly felt in the region. The most frequently encountered Alcaraz carpet design of that period consists of octagons in square or rectangular compartments, a design that closely relates to Spanish and Moroccan designs of the period in a number of materials notably book illumination and wooden doors and ceilings (see for example lot 15 in our sale of Islamic and Indian Art on 17 April 2007). It also clearly shows a number of similarities with the contemporaneous "large-pattern Holbein" rugs of Asia Minor. The total Christianisation of Spain which was completed in the subsequent hundred years is perfectly reflected in Alcaraz carpet design. What had been a repeated Islamic stellar octagon design became the classical oak-leaf wreath that is seen here, repeated on the same scale.

A number of Alcaraz 'wreath' carpets have survived, all of which are variations on the same theme as seen here. Often, particularly in later examples, the main effect is bitonal, with a few details picked out in related or contrasting colours. Here there is a greater variety of colour than in some examples, with the white areas lifting the contrast. A single roundel fragment with similarly lively colours is in the Textile Museum (Ernst Kühnel, Textile Museum, Catalogue of Spanish Rugs, 12th Century to 19th Century, Washington D.C., 1953, R84.2, p.29, pl. XXVI). The delicate drawing of the tracery vine confirms that this rug is an early example in the development of this group which later become stiffer and more angular.