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拍品專文
The production of carpets in Europe, with the exception of Spain, was limited before the sixteenth century, which increased the demand for such pieces to be imported from the East. European weavers began to draw heavily upon those Eastern carpet designs including; 'Lotto', Cairene' and both 'large' and 'small-pattern Holbeins'. One example of a fifteenth century Spanish carpet with the 'small-pattern Holbein' design is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Serare Yetkin, Historical Turkish Carpets, Istanbul, 1981, fig.29, p.59. which illustrates quite how early on the influence of Anatolian carpets began in Spain. The needlepoint offered here is a further example of a successful Western production but is most likely to have been woven in Arraiolos, Portugal.
The design of the present lot is highly unusual, as whilst it is immediately recognisable as a 'small-pattern Holbein' carpet it has introduced a third medallion of octagonal form within the field, for which no comparable example appears to have been published. Strangely, the addition of this motif does not in anyway impede the design but instead appears to ricochet away from the other rotating repetitive medallions, settling comfortably within what appears to be previously unoccupied space. One cannot be sure if this rare addition is purely an idiosyncracy, or if it was faithfully copying a rare variant that unfortunately no longer appears to survive. The alternating colours in the border strapwork and within each enclosed star adds a further unconventional rhythm.
While 'small-pattern Holbein' carpets usually have a characteristic deep red field, the carpet here has faded on the face to a dusty straw colour, but the colour on the reverse appears a very pale salmon-pink. As with many Spanish carpets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with salmon-red backgrounds, it appears that the same red colours in Arraiolos weavings faded over the years due to the loss of traditional dyeing skills, (Sarah B.Sherrill, Carpets and Rugs of Europe and America, New York, 1996,).
Two Arraiolos needlework carpets, one seventeenth century of 'Mamluk' design, the other eighteenth century of 'Lotto' design, and both of similar colouring to the present lot, are discussed in, Edoardo Concaro and Alberto Levi, Sovrani Tappeti, Il tappeto oriental dal XV al XIX secolo, Milan, ICOC, pl.170, p.197, and pl.171, p.198.
The design of the present lot is highly unusual, as whilst it is immediately recognisable as a 'small-pattern Holbein' carpet it has introduced a third medallion of octagonal form within the field, for which no comparable example appears to have been published. Strangely, the addition of this motif does not in anyway impede the design but instead appears to ricochet away from the other rotating repetitive medallions, settling comfortably within what appears to be previously unoccupied space. One cannot be sure if this rare addition is purely an idiosyncracy, or if it was faithfully copying a rare variant that unfortunately no longer appears to survive. The alternating colours in the border strapwork and within each enclosed star adds a further unconventional rhythm.
While 'small-pattern Holbein' carpets usually have a characteristic deep red field, the carpet here has faded on the face to a dusty straw colour, but the colour on the reverse appears a very pale salmon-pink. As with many Spanish carpets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with salmon-red backgrounds, it appears that the same red colours in Arraiolos weavings faded over the years due to the loss of traditional dyeing skills, (Sarah B.Sherrill, Carpets and Rugs of Europe and America, New York, 1996,).
Two Arraiolos needlework carpets, one seventeenth century of 'Mamluk' design, the other eighteenth century of 'Lotto' design, and both of similar colouring to the present lot, are discussed in, Edoardo Concaro and Alberto Levi, Sovrani Tappeti, Il tappeto oriental dal XV al XIX secolo, Milan, ICOC, pl.170, p.197, and pl.171, p.198.