CENTRAL ANATOLIA, 18TH CENTURY

The hooked medallions on Konya rugs are motifs of considerable antiquity. The association with the German-Flemish artist Hans Memling is linked to a painting in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, which depicts a vase of flowers on a table, upon which a rug is spread with hooked medallions. Given that Memling died in 1494, this establishes that this motif was already well established in the 15th century (Heinrich Kirchheim et al., Orient Stars: a Carpet Collection, Stuttgart, 1993, p.188)

In the Orient Stars collection is a fragmentary long rug consisting of two columns of Memling guls, like our example, upon which five can be seen (Heinrich Kirchheim et al., op.cit., p.193, no.115). The exact design of ours, with Memling guls that are square in shape with 'x' motifs in the centre, is closer to a still more fragmentary example in the same collection (ibid., p.200, no.125). The small diamonds at one end of the brown medallions on our rug have been interpreted as talismanic symbols, believed to ward off the evil eye.