Page 315 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

1942.9-474 (C-327)

Polonaise Rug

Probably Isfahan, Persia, first half of the seventeenth century
Silk pile with gold and silver brocade on cotton warp and
J
cotton and silk weft, 2.160 x 1.410 (85 x 55 /2)
Widener Collection

TECHNICAL NOTES
Warp: cotton, Z4S, ivory. Alternate warps depressed. Weft: X3, for the Polonaises. 1 The design of the small Widener
first and third shoots cotton, 2Z, unbleached, relatively straight. Polonaise rug shows how the traditional medallion and
Second shoot sinuous silk, U, light orange. Metal: silver, S- cornerpiece system was adapted to the new Polonaise
wound on U ivory silk core; gilded silver on tan; some of the aesthetic that evolved under Shah Abbas I in the early
core shows a Z-twist. Brocaded over 3 under i on the upper seventeenth century. The clearly delineated areas of
warps. Pile: silk, U, asymmetrical knotting open at the left. Hor. color, symmetry, and precision characteristic of the early
T
18,17. Vert. 13,15 /2. Approximately 250 knots to the square inch. style was replaced by one that stressed the contrast creat-
Ends: warps doubled back in groups of 4, with alternate groups
cut, creating the foundation for a half-inch tape of Soumak ed by juxtaposing elaborate curvilinear sections of
brocading in light orange and light green silk with occasional woven silk pile with a ground of glittering gold and sil-
wound metal strips in a modified herringbone effect. From the ver brocading. Medallions no longer stand out against
foundation of the tape a 5 ^-inch fringe of light green and and dominate their designs, but are obscured by a com-
orange silk remains (U2Z)2S. Sides: two cables of (Z4S)4Z ivory plex network of meandering scrollwork. Here the qua-
cotton, the inner within the cotton weft. The silk weft returned trefoil medallion (which consists of four lotus palmettes
on the outer. An interwoven selvage of light orange silk on the bounded by arabesques), its two large lotus palmette
two cables appears to be mostly replacement. Colors: ivory, pendants, and the cornerpieces are united by a swirling
black-brown, orange-brown, yellow-orange, light pink, flame vine that runs throughout the field. These, in turn, con-
red-orange, dull light orange, light golden yellow, various nect with a richly colored, abundant floral ornamenta-
shades of green and blue, dull violet, purple-gray, pale and dark
gray. Most of the metal, especially the silver, has degraded, tion that consists of lancet leaves, lotus palmettes, forked
diminishing the pile. Other areas, such as the border's ground, arabesques, rosettes, buds, and cloudbands. The design is
retain most of the original pile height. The back is weathered, not quite symmetrical, as the field's center lies slightly
but some colors are better preserved than on the face. The rug below the rug's proper center. The main border's pal-
is generally rather stiff. mette, flower, and lancet leaf bracket configuration
appears, with a variety of mutations, in many other small
PROVENANCE Polonaises; such borders are also found in numerous
Baron Rothschild Collection, Paris (possibly Alphonse de Indo-Persian carpets. Like the large Widener Polonaise
Rothschild [1827-1905]); Peter A. B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, carpet, the inner guard stripe has the reciprocal "Y" pat-
Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, by 1910; inheritance from Estate of tern, and the outer guard stripe consists of a vine that
Peter A. B. Widener, by gift through power of appointment of connects a series of buds and rosettes. Both of these
Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.
motifs are common among Polonaise rugs. Spuhler has
EXHIBITED noted that the closest counterpart to this rug, which was
Loan Exhibition of Early Oriental Rugs, Metropolitan Museum probably woven from the same cartoon, is in the Museo
2
of Art, New York, 1910-1911, no. 40. del Palazzo di Venezia, Rome. Analogous field patterns
appear in other small Polonaises, most notably one in the
3
T A THILE THE LARGE WIDENER Polonaise carpet Tehran Carpet Museum, a rare silk rug without metal in
V V (1942.9.473) is remarkable because of its dimen- the St. Louis Art Museum, 4 a rug in the Residenz
sions, intricate workmanship, and quality of design, this Museum, Munich, 5 and, in a more general way, one in
rug is a more representative example of its class. The the Musee Historique des Tissus, Lyons. 6
immediate predecessors of these small Polonaise rugs Like most of the surviving Polonaise carpets and rugs,
were the finely woven silk Kashans, such as 1942.9.478, this specimen's gold and silver brocading has suffered
which were woven in the second half of the sixteenth from abrasion and tarnishing, and the formerly brilliant
century. At least one of the Kashans possesses areas of silk dyes have faded to pastel hues. The rug's original
metal brocading, a feature that was to become standard appearance can be approximated only by comparing it

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