POSSIBLY QAZVIN, NORTH PERSIA, CIRCA 1565-1575

Technical Analysis;
Warp: silk, Z2S, yellow
Weft: cotton, Z2S ivory, 3 shoots
Pile: wool, asymmetrical knot, open to the left
Density: 15-17 horizontal; 15-17 vertical
Sides: not original
Ends: not original

This sixteenth century masterpiece, which survives in extraordinary condition, was produced during the 'Golden Age' of carpet weaving under the Safavid dynasty (1501-1732). Carpets of this period were noted for their detailed precision, sumptuous materials, and ornate designs. The red ground 'in and out palmette' or 'spiralling vine' design of the present carpet is perhaps the most recognisable of these court designs and remains one of the most sought-after of all classical carpets.The rich burgundy-red field is filled with an elaborate network of scrolling vines with counterposed palmettes, blossoms, buds, and leaves, but with the addition of numerous paired pheasants with elongated colourful plumes.

Within the group of 'in and out palmette' carpets there are various subgroups. The present example is considered one of the finest type due to the use of silk warps within the foundation. At the time, silk was considered to be the most luxurious and costly of materials in Safavid Persia and was strictly limited to the royal court workshops and used only by the most highly skilled weavers. Indeed the export of silk as a prestigious commodity from Persia had become such a lucrative trade that it was reported that Sultan Selim I attempted to ban the export of silk from Persia to the Ottoman Empire in an attempt to weaken the Safavid economy.

Another characteristic of this early group is the intensity and variety of colourful dyes used, together with the very highest quality of finely spun, soft wool. The colour palette of the present carpet contains at least seventeen different natural dyes, nearly all of which are phenomenally well-preserved. Also typical is the accuracy and exact execution of drawing with the inclusion of birds. Following the concept of the pair of mid-sixteenth century 'Emperor's Carpets' which once adorned the summer residence of the Habsburg emperors, now housed between the Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (F. Sarre and H. Trenkwald, Altorientalische Teppiche, Vienna and Leipzig, 1926, Vol.1, pls.6-8 and M.S.Dimand and J. Mailey, Oriental Rugs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1973, no.12, p.101 and fig.76) which include both animals, birds and cloud bands in their scrolling foliage, the earliest group of these red-ground palmette carpets often, as here, include either animals or birds. At first sight, the field appears to have four-fold symmetry, but closer inspection reveals that the top and bottom halves are not identical, with colour symmetry restricted to mirror imaging on the vertical axis only.

The technically advanced design developments were the result of the special interest taken by the court. During this period the master weavers were able to work with bookbinders, miniaturists, illuminators and other artists, and thereby caused something of a revolution in carpet design and in the art of weaving. The carpets produced under the patronage of the Shah on the royal looms, were not considered as mere functional floor coverings, but were independent works of art that indicated the status and wealth of their owners. Court carpets were used in reception halls, audience chambers, and at court-supported religious institutions. They were also presented as impressive gifts to other rulers and foreign dignitaries.

Despite the relative frequency with which this group of sixteenth and seventeenth century carpets are encountered, their precise origin is not established with any certainty. Their dating and popularity is attested by the number that can be seen in paintings, particularly by the Dutch and Flemish artists of the period. Yet despite this there has been considerable discussion about their place of manufacture. It was the re-attribution in 2007 of a similar carpet as being a gift from Shah Tahmasp I to Queen Catherina of Portugal that made carpet scholars reassess the dating and place of manufacture of 16th century carpets from central Persia. That carpet, which had been in the Convent of Madre de Deus, Xabregas, Lisbon, survives in two parts. The largest and main section of the 'Madre de Deus Tree and Animal Carpet’, Qazvin, circa 1565 is now in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon, inv. no. 47Tp. The smaller, lower section of that same carpet, having been separated from the original, was in the Dikran Kelekian Collection before it was acquired by George Hewitt Myers, Washington DC, for the Textile Museum in 1951, (DC, R.33.4.6), (Jessica Hallett and Teresa P. Pereira, ‘The Queen’s List’, HALI, Issue 152, pp.72–6, Summer 2007). A similar carpet can be seen depicted in a contemporaneous double-portrait painting of Queen Catherina of Portugal praying together with her husband. In the archives of Queen Catherina is a further record from 1565 of a pair of carpets that have now been identified as being in collections in Boston and New York. This major discovery has allowed us to reassess this most important group of carpets to the Imperial workshops in Qazvin.

The passion for collecting these extraordinary weavings was reignited in the nineteenth century, particularly in America where the great industrialists such as Henry Clay Frick, William Randolph Hearst, Henry E. Huntington, J.P. Morgan, Samuel H. Kress, Andrew Mellon, John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford, actively sought out these great carpets, inspired by their beauty and jewel-like qualities and were encouraged by extraordinarily powerful art dealers such as Joseph Duveen (1869-1939). The impressive line of provenance for this carpet can be traced back to the end of the nineteenth century to Baron Edmond James de Rothschild (1845-1934). Edmond and his wife Adélaïde were outstanding patrons of the arts, remembered for their historic donation of the widest collection in the world of old masters drawings to the Louvre Museum in 1934. In 1876 Edmond bought the imposing ‘Hôtel de Pontalba’, 41, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, Paris, built in 1839 and designed by Louis Visconti. Decorated in the Gôut Rothschild, it displayed a sumptuous array of ornate textiles, velvets and oriental carpets that worked in harmony with the finely crafted Louis XIV and XV French furniture. As evidenced by this carpet and others formerly in their collection (Sarre and Trenkwald op.cit., vol.2, pls.24-26 (the Boston Hunting Carpet) and R. Ettinghausen, Ancient Carpets from the L.A.Mayer Memorial Institute for Islamic Art, Jerusalem, 1977, pl.3, a 'Polonaise' rug), the Barons de Rothschild in Paris had a superb collection of Safavid carpets.

A closely related spiralling-vine carpet which incorporated the same styled birds is the “Enzenberg spiral-vine carpet” in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, (see F Spuhler, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: Carpets and Textiles, London, 1998, pl. 20). More closely related to the field design of the carpet offered here is that of a carpet from the Kelekian Collection, see Arthur Upham Pope, A Survey of Persian Art, London and New York, 1939, pl.1186. According to Pope, carpets such as this may have been woven for use in mosques as they omit depicting any animals or human figures which would be considered sacrilege, while the representation of birds was permissible, see ibid., p. 2363. Another closely related silk foundation carpet, although somewhat less complex in design as it does not depict birds, sold Christie’s London, 16 April 2007, lot 100. Related fragments include one from the collection of the late Robert De Calatchi, Paris and sold Sotheby’s London, October 4, 2000, lot 79; one in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, see Kurt Erdmann, Der Orientalische Knupfteppich, Tubingen, 1955, Abb. 79; one from the collection of Mrs. Nelson A. Rockefeller, sold Sotheby’s New York, June 4, 1998, lot 10; and another at Galerie Koller, Zurich, March 28, 2001, lot 1061.