Page 310 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

1942.9-473 (C-326)
Polonaise Carpet

Probably Isfahan, Persia, first half of the seventeenth century
Silk pile and metal brocade on cotton warp and cotton and silk
weft, 405.0 x 178.0 (160 x 70 at bottom; 69 at top)
Widener Collection

TECHNICAL NOTES
Warp: cotton, Z4S, ivory. Alternate warps depressed on two lev- carpets and was too confusing to assume widespread
els. Weft: X3, first and third shoots relatively straight cotton, 2Z, usage. Although the Polonaise and Polish designations
beige or ecru (semi-bleached), dyed dull light red, with crimson have endured as a matter of convenience, they are not
bands. Second shoot sinuous silk, U, light orange to ecru. Metal: altogether misnomers since many examples of the type
silver, S-wound on U ivory silk core; gilded silver on buff. came to the West via Poland. Polonaises were first made
5
Brocaded over 3 under i on the upper warps. Pile: silk, U. asym- during the reign of Shah Abbas I (1587-1629), and their
1
metrical knotting open at the left. Hor. 15, Vert. n /!. production continued for at least a century.
Approximately 175 knots to the square inch. Top finish: 1/8 inch
of yellow U silk kilim. Bottom finish: 1/4 inch of light yellow U Early examples were woven at Kashan, where some
silk kilim. Sides: two cables, (Z4S) 3Z, both within the silk weft were acquired in 1602 by an Armenian merchant acting 6
but beyond the cotton. An interwoven selvage of peach silk on on behalf of the Polish King Sigismund Vasa III.
the two cables, with crimson bands. Colors: ivory (much Polonaise carpets were produced at the Shah's new capi-
degraded), various shades of brown, peach, crimson, salmon tal city Isfahan (founded 1598), where the French mer-
7
pink, orange, light yellow, various shades of green and blue, and chant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier reported that "gold and
royal
or
manufactories,
at
dull violet. The metal has substantially eroded, and there is silver carpets" were woven public square, the meydan,
near
the
karkhanas,
city's
extensive surface wear, especially at the lower end.
close to the administrative nucleus of Shah Abbas'
palace. The approximately 230 Polonaise carpets and
PROVENANCE
Peter A. B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsyl- rugs that survive today are the remains of an extensive
vania, by 1910; inheritance from Estate of Peter A. B. Widener by production. The Shah created a systematic state patron-
gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, age system for the arts in which such luxury items were
Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. economic assets whose development was dictated by
commercial exigencies; Anthony Welch made the analo-
gy that under the Shah's rule the arts became "in large
EXHIBITED measure state industries, fostered quite as deliberately as
Loan Exhibition of Early Oriental Rugs, Metropolitan Museum Colbert encouraged the textile and ceramic manufac-
of Art, New York, 1910-1911, no. 39. Exhibition of Persian Art, tures of Louis XIV's France." The Polish Jesuit mission-
8
The Iranian Institute, New York, 1940, no. 10. Shah 'Abbas and ary Thadaco Krusinski, who lived in Persia from 1704 to
the Arts of Isfahan, Asia House Gallery, New York; Fogg Art 1729, described how in addition to being woven for use at
Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1973-1974, no. 28.
the royal court, these commodities enriched "the royal
treasury beyond measure, as whole cargoes of more valu-
ONG ADMIRED IN THE WEST, the so-called "Polonaise" able silk tissues and rugs brocaded with gold and silk
Lor "Polish" carpets, with their distinctive combina- thread are sent to Europe, and above all to India, to be
tion of knotted silk pile and areas of brocaded gold and sold by the royal salesmen." 9
silver, are among the most sumptuous products of the Emblems of extreme wealth that were inherently deli-
loom. The misleading terms used to describe the group cate and ill-suited for heavy use, Polonaise rugs were often
arose when Prince Ladislas Czartoryski exhibited exam- utilized as diplomatic gifts. Many, such as the five pieces
ples at the Salle Polonaise during the 1878 Exposition that the Shah gave to the Venetian Signoria in 1603 and
Universelle de Paris, where they were identified as "Tapis 1621, came to Europe as ambassadorial presentation pieces
Polonais," and presumed to have been made in Poland. 1 from Persian rulers to either the Church or royal courts;
According to Pope, John Kimberly Mumford was the former event was depicted in Gabriele Caliari's The
responsible for popularizing the term by continuing to Doge Marino Grimani Receiving the Persian Ambassadors
2
use it in his 1902 monograph. Wilhelm von Bode, how- (1603, Palazzo Ducale, Venice). In 1639 Persian emissaries
ever, had discerned their Persian origin a decade earlier. 3 gave a number of the rugs to the Duke of Holstein-
Kurt Erdmann preferred to call the group "Shah Abbas Gottorp. The famous Coronation carpet (Danish Royal
4
carpets," but the term had been applied to other Safavid Collection, Rosenborg Palace, Copenhagen), so named

294 D E C O R A T I V E A R T S