.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This rug comes from an easily recognisable and well documented group, which became known as 'Lotto' carpets in the middle part of the twentieth century, due to their depiction within the paintings of Venetian artist, Lorenzo Lotto (1480-1556). They could however, equally have been called after a number of other contemporaneous painters who depicted these same rugs in their paintings at that time. For a fuller discussion on this subject see J. Mills, ''Lotto' Carpets in Western Paintings', Hali, vol.3, no.4, pp.278-289.
The field design of these rugs has been classified into three subgroups 'Anatolian', 'kilim' and 'ornamented' by Charles Grant Ellis ('The 'Lotto' Pattern as a Fashion in Carpets', in A.Ohm and H.Reber, (eds): Festschrift f/uur Peter Wilhelm Meister, Hamburg, 1975 and C.G.Ellis, 'On 'Holbein' and 'Lotto' Rugs', Oriental Carpet & Textile Studies II, Carpets of the Mediterranean Countries 1400-1600, London 1986, pp.173-176, pls.13-15). The example offered here, together with lots 353 and 354 in this sale, are all from the 'kilim' field subgroup.
Whilst the field design varies in detail between rugs of the same period, variety in the border designs and the quality of their execution, have been the main basis for discussion on the origin of these pieces. The borders on two of the three rugs in this sale are of different designs, with the 'ragged palmette and key' design of the present lot being the rarest of the two, which was developed from earlier fifteenth century Anatolian rugs (E.H. Kirchheim, (ed.), Orient Stars, Stuttgart, 1993, pp.335, pl.213. for example). The classic dark blue or red border colour, found on the vast majority of the group, has here been replaced with a much rarer, light yellow contrasting ground and has the addition of a pale rose-pink key-motifs. The combination of a 'kilim'-style field alongside a 'ragged palmette and key' border is found on comparable examples in the Romanian collections of Transylvania, see Stefano Ionescu, Antique Ottoman Rugs in Transylvania, 1995, cat.nos.27 (Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu), 28 and 242 (both St.Margaret's Church, Medias), however all of those cited display the more traditional indigo coloured border. A closely related 'Lotto' rug with the same yellow ground border but with pale blue cartouches, sold in Christie's, London, 17 October, 1996, lot 423.
This 'Lotto' rug was formerly part of the estate of the late Mary Griggs Burke (1916-2012), who was recognised as having the largest private collection of Japanese art outside of Japan, and who had an indelible impact on the emergence of Asian art in the United States. After her death in 2012, Burke’s Japanese collection was divided between the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, while the Burbank-Livingston-Griggs house and its contents, in which the present rug was housed, was bequeathed to the Minnesota Historical Society in 1968, for use as a museum. The Society operated the museum until 1996, after which the collection was de-accessioned.
The field design of these rugs has been classified into three subgroups 'Anatolian', 'kilim' and 'ornamented' by Charles Grant Ellis ('The 'Lotto' Pattern as a Fashion in Carpets', in A.Ohm and H.Reber, (eds): Festschrift f/uur Peter Wilhelm Meister, Hamburg, 1975 and C.G.Ellis, 'On 'Holbein' and 'Lotto' Rugs', Oriental Carpet & Textile Studies II, Carpets of the Mediterranean Countries 1400-1600, London 1986, pp.173-176, pls.13-15). The example offered here, together with lots 353 and 354 in this sale, are all from the 'kilim' field subgroup.
Whilst the field design varies in detail between rugs of the same period, variety in the border designs and the quality of their execution, have been the main basis for discussion on the origin of these pieces. The borders on two of the three rugs in this sale are of different designs, with the 'ragged palmette and key' design of the present lot being the rarest of the two, which was developed from earlier fifteenth century Anatolian rugs (E.H. Kirchheim, (ed.), Orient Stars, Stuttgart, 1993, pp.335, pl.213. for example). The classic dark blue or red border colour, found on the vast majority of the group, has here been replaced with a much rarer, light yellow contrasting ground and has the addition of a pale rose-pink key-motifs. The combination of a 'kilim'-style field alongside a 'ragged palmette and key' border is found on comparable examples in the Romanian collections of Transylvania, see Stefano Ionescu, Antique Ottoman Rugs in Transylvania, 1995, cat.nos.27 (Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu), 28 and 242 (both St.Margaret's Church, Medias), however all of those cited display the more traditional indigo coloured border. A closely related 'Lotto' rug with the same yellow ground border but with pale blue cartouches, sold in Christie's, London, 17 October, 1996, lot 423.
This 'Lotto' rug was formerly part of the estate of the late Mary Griggs Burke (1916-2012), who was recognised as having the largest private collection of Japanese art outside of Japan, and who had an indelible impact on the emergence of Asian art in the United States. After her death in 2012, Burke’s Japanese collection was divided between the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, while the Burbank-Livingston-Griggs house and its contents, in which the present rug was housed, was bequeathed to the Minnesota Historical Society in 1968, for use as a museum. The Society operated the museum until 1996, after which the collection was de-accessioned.