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Lot Essay
By the mid sixteenth century Safavid Persia had accomplished a level of high sophistication in design and technique not only in carpets but also in architecture, bookbinding and manuscripts. The export of this energetic explosion of design was vastly speeded up when Shah Tahmasp became more overtly devoted to religion and as a result closed many of the royal design ateliers. Persian artists who went to India brought with them their acquired skills and workshop experience. Carpets under the Mughals in India therefore derived their designs heavily from those of Persia, to some extent copying extant Persian carpet designs, but also adapting the complex designs shown in book illustrations using curvilinear drawing techniques together with figural forms (Daniel Walker, Flowers Underfoot, Indian Carpets of the Mughal Era, New York, 1997, p.29).
When Akbar’s son Jahangir succeeded the throne and became Emperor (r.1605 -1627), he continued his father’s legacy as an avid patron of the arts which he passed to his grandson, Shah Jahan (r.1628-1666). Until around 1630 designs were based upon earlier Persian models but after this point artists were encouraged to develop a greater ‘Indian’ aesthetic. The floral design of this carpet is woven with a new and refreshingly accurate botanical realism, in response to Shah Jahan's enthusiasm for herbaria which was similarly employed in contemporaneous Indian paintings and architecture (see Robert Skelton, A decorative motif in Moghul Art, Aspects of Indian Art, Los Angeles, 1972, p.147). Many of their designs contained characteristic rich ruby-red fields with delicate lozenge lattices enclosing flowers. The chrysanthemum flowers represented in this carpet were amongst the most favoured flowers of Shah Jahan's court. Similarly, it can be seen in the borders of albums of the period such as around a panel of calligraphy in an album made for the emperor (Stuart Cary Welch, Annemarie Schimmel, Marie L. Swietochowski and Wheeler M. Thackston, The Emperor's Album, New York, 1987, no.56, pp.196-7). It can also be seen on a ceiling in the Aramgah in the Red Fort, Delhi, painted between 1639-48 (D. Walker, op.cit., fig.85, p.89).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York possesses a carpet where Persian-inspired stylised palmettes and leaves are mixed with realistically drawn flowers, illustrating this new trend, see M. S. Dimand and Jean Mailey, Oriental Carpets in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1973, p.122. By the mid-1700s, as the Mughal Court transferred its economic and political focus from Persia to its new trading allies, the Western European powers such as Holland and England, it replaced the Safavid design ethos with a more European aesthetic that resulted in generally more regulated, less organic compositions and stylised design elements.
In India, like most other weaving centres in the world at the time, silk was considered among the most precious of materials and only a limited number of silk carpets and rugs were woven, making those that survive today very rare indeed. The present carpet is in a remarkable state of preservation. The deep ruby-red ground compliments the rich purple and golden yellow colours of the design and the carpet has a luminous and luxurious quality. Its appearance must have been quite striking against the cool white marbled floors of the palace upon which it would have been laid.
The present rug belongs to a small group of 'flower-in-lattice' pattern rugs, all of which have a delicately drawn overall lattice enclosing sprays of flowers shown facing forward and in three-quarter views, some depicted naturalistically, others more stylised a border design of flowering carnations linked by an angular stems and rhythmically repeating flower heads in the guard borders and. In addition to the present lot, the pieces belonging to this group are; one in the Musée des Tissus, Lyon; a fragment in the Al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait; another fragment, presumably from the same carpet, in the Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar; a carpet sold from the Kevorkian Collection, Anderson Galleries, New York, March 11-13, 1922, lot 605; one sold from the Benguiat Collection, Anderson Galleries, New York, April 23, 1932, lot 26; another sold from the Untermyer Collection, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, May 10-11, 1940, lot 207; one sold from the Quill Jones Collection, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, March 21, 1952, lot 108; one formerly in the Cliff Collection, Detroit Institute of Art, and one formerly in the Corcoran Gallery which was sold in Sotheby's New York, 5 June 2013, lot 25 (J. Eskenazi, Il Tappeto Orientale Dal XV al XVIII Secolo, London, 1981, pl.35, p.95). A number of these examples, including the Corcoran carpet, have golden yellow guard stripes and purple minor stripes flanking the red border, whereas the present carpet has the opposite arrangement with deep purple guard stripes and yellow minor stripes.
This rare survivor, with its delicately curved trellis and sympathetically drawn flowers, is one of the last few carpets produced in the golden age of carpet weaving in India before the design of floral carpets became overly angular and stylised in their drawing in response to the above-mentioned European aesthetic.
When Akbar’s son Jahangir succeeded the throne and became Emperor (r.1605 -1627), he continued his father’s legacy as an avid patron of the arts which he passed to his grandson, Shah Jahan (r.1628-1666). Until around 1630 designs were based upon earlier Persian models but after this point artists were encouraged to develop a greater ‘Indian’ aesthetic. The floral design of this carpet is woven with a new and refreshingly accurate botanical realism, in response to Shah Jahan's enthusiasm for herbaria which was similarly employed in contemporaneous Indian paintings and architecture (see Robert Skelton, A decorative motif in Moghul Art, Aspects of Indian Art, Los Angeles, 1972, p.147). Many of their designs contained characteristic rich ruby-red fields with delicate lozenge lattices enclosing flowers. The chrysanthemum flowers represented in this carpet were amongst the most favoured flowers of Shah Jahan's court. Similarly, it can be seen in the borders of albums of the period such as around a panel of calligraphy in an album made for the emperor (Stuart Cary Welch, Annemarie Schimmel, Marie L. Swietochowski and Wheeler M. Thackston, The Emperor's Album, New York, 1987, no.56, pp.196-7). It can also be seen on a ceiling in the Aramgah in the Red Fort, Delhi, painted between 1639-48 (D. Walker, op.cit., fig.85, p.89).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York possesses a carpet where Persian-inspired stylised palmettes and leaves are mixed with realistically drawn flowers, illustrating this new trend, see M. S. Dimand and Jean Mailey, Oriental Carpets in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1973, p.122. By the mid-1700s, as the Mughal Court transferred its economic and political focus from Persia to its new trading allies, the Western European powers such as Holland and England, it replaced the Safavid design ethos with a more European aesthetic that resulted in generally more regulated, less organic compositions and stylised design elements.
In India, like most other weaving centres in the world at the time, silk was considered among the most precious of materials and only a limited number of silk carpets and rugs were woven, making those that survive today very rare indeed. The present carpet is in a remarkable state of preservation. The deep ruby-red ground compliments the rich purple and golden yellow colours of the design and the carpet has a luminous and luxurious quality. Its appearance must have been quite striking against the cool white marbled floors of the palace upon which it would have been laid.
The present rug belongs to a small group of 'flower-in-lattice' pattern rugs, all of which have a delicately drawn overall lattice enclosing sprays of flowers shown facing forward and in three-quarter views, some depicted naturalistically, others more stylised a border design of flowering carnations linked by an angular stems and rhythmically repeating flower heads in the guard borders and. In addition to the present lot, the pieces belonging to this group are; one in the Musée des Tissus, Lyon; a fragment in the Al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait; another fragment, presumably from the same carpet, in the Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar; a carpet sold from the Kevorkian Collection, Anderson Galleries, New York, March 11-13, 1922, lot 605; one sold from the Benguiat Collection, Anderson Galleries, New York, April 23, 1932, lot 26; another sold from the Untermyer Collection, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, May 10-11, 1940, lot 207; one sold from the Quill Jones Collection, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, March 21, 1952, lot 108; one formerly in the Cliff Collection, Detroit Institute of Art, and one formerly in the Corcoran Gallery which was sold in Sotheby's New York, 5 June 2013, lot 25 (J. Eskenazi, Il Tappeto Orientale Dal XV al XVIII Secolo, London, 1981, pl.35, p.95). A number of these examples, including the Corcoran carpet, have golden yellow guard stripes and purple minor stripes flanking the red border, whereas the present carpet has the opposite arrangement with deep purple guard stripes and yellow minor stripes.
This rare survivor, with its delicately curved trellis and sympathetically drawn flowers, is one of the last few carpets produced in the golden age of carpet weaving in India before the design of floral carpets became overly angular and stylised in their drawing in response to the above-mentioned European aesthetic.