WEST ANATOLIA, SECOND HALF 17TH CENTURY

Large Medallion Ushak carpets are amongst the grandest and most successful of all the classical Ushak designs. Although originally woven exclusively for the Ottoman market, Medallion Ushaks begin to appear in European paintings from the second half of the 16th century suggesting that they were being woven for export by that time. The Family of Henry VIII, An Allegory of Tudor Sucession, by an unknown artist, circa 1570, is the first painting depicting a large medallion Ushak in a western context. The prominence given to the carpet in the composition, covering the dais of Henry VIII and displayed in such a way that the entire design can be read, infers the importance and expense of these luxury goods at the time. By the 17th century there is documentary evidence of a thriving export market for Medallion Ushaks in Europe. The greater availability of these carpets is reflected in the way the carpets are depicted in paintings. We continue to see Medallion Ushak carpets depicted in Royal portraits such Velasquez's 1653 portrait of The Infanta Marguerita, but in the works of Vermeer we see the carpets depicted in the homes of wealthy merchants and in genre paintings such as The Procuress, 1656 (Donald King and David Sylvester, The Eastern Carpet in the Western World from the 15th to the 17th Century, London, 1983, p.73).

The enduring appeal of the design is reflected in the longevity of the production, which continued into the 19th century, and the numbers that survive in European country houses. The present carpet is not the earliest example but it retains the fine curvilinear drawing and the beautiful colouring of the earlier production. Our carpet is very similar to the Rogers Medallion Ushak carpet in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession no. 08.173.13. It has the unusual feature of having a different inner minor stripe on three of the four sides of the border, suggesting a sense of experimentation and playfulness in the weaver.