Page 318 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

1942-9-477 (C-330)
Medallion and Animal Carpet

"Herat" type, Persia, possibly Isfahan, c. 1600
Wool pile on silk warp and wool and cotton weft,
x
4.370 x 2.250 (172 x 88 /2)
Widener Collection

TECHNICAL NOTES
Warp: silk, UiS, orange with some light yellow. Alternate warps most established terms in carpet literature, the Herat
depressed. Weft: x 3. First and third shoots wool, z and at times designation serves merely as a taxonomic convenience
2Z, beige with streaks of light red, coral, and ivory. Near the top, rather than a precise local attribution. There is no con-
a brindle mixture of natural wool colors and light salmon. crete evidence that any of the carpets and rugs in the
Elsewhere, cotton, 2Z, ivory. Second shoot cotton, 2Z, ivory. Pile: group were actually woven in or even near the city, nor
wool, 2Z with some 4Z. Asymmetrical knotting open at the left. do such pieces appear in Timurid miniatures from Herat
Hor. 13,15,16. Vert. 13,12,11 Vi.150 to 200 knots to the square inch.
The ends are cut and the sides rebuilt. Colors: ivory, brown, (although individual motifs do occur). Furthermore, the
abrashed beige and dark flesh, crimson red, dark pink, bright social and political environment during the tumultuous
brown-orange, yellow, and various shades of abrashed green and period following the Uzbek conquest of 1507 may 3 not
blue. In 1941 the carpet underwent extensive restoration at have been conducive for quality carpet production. As
Karekin Beshir, New York, when over nine pounds of dirt were Murray Eiland has noted, specialists devised the term "in
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extracted. At some time in the past the rug was cut transversely an effort to find some intermediate type between Persian
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into three pieces, which have been rewoven together. The entire and Indian types." Nevertheless, these carpets are relat-
right side of the outer guard border is a replacement, and the left ed to one another by their common color schemes, bor-
side of the outer guard has been rewoven. Signs of wear and old der designs, certain design elements, repertory of animal
slits where warps have broken and have been mended are visible forms, and, in some cases, weave structure. The most
down the carpet's center. The upper border is quite worn.
famous examples of the group are the two non-medal-
lion "Emperor" animal carpets (Osterreichisches
PROVENANCE
Theodore Mante, Marseilles; (Duveen Brothers, New York and Museum fur angewandte Kunst, Vienna, and
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London); inheritance from Estate of Peter A. B. Widener by gift Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), which,
through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins according to unverifiable lore, had been presented to the
Park, Pennsylvania, after purchase by funds of the Estate. Austrian Emperor Leopold I by the Russian Czar Peter
the Great in 1698.
EXHIBITED The Widener carpet's symmetrically designed field, in
Exposition d'objets d'art du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance, Hotel which predatory animals stalk, pursue, and attack their
de Sagan, Paris, 1913, no. 344. Exhibition of Persian Art, The Iranian prey, is a variation on the hunting carpet theme.
Institute, New York, 1940, no. 16. An Exhibition of Antique Oriental Allowing for minor variations, the forms in each quarter
Rugs, Art Institute of Chicago, 1947, no. 22. From Persia's Ancient section are repeated in the other three. The coloring of
Looms, The Textile Museum, Washington, 1972, unnumbered. The
Arts of Islam, Hayward Gallery, London, 1976, no. 61. Akbar's India: this example is typical of the Herat group, with its gold-
Art from the Mughal City of Victory, The Asia Society, New York; en yellow lobed medallion and pendants set on a rich
Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Museum of Fine madder field surrounded by a green and yellow border.
Arts, Houston, 1985-1986 (shown only at first two venues, through The medallion's green octafoil center is filled with a radi-
March 1986), unnumbered. al display of buds and stems arranged around a red
rosette. It is encircled by four cloudbands that are inter-
HIS PIECE, ALONG WITH THE SELEY CARPET and a carpet twined with a split-arabesque scheme placed over an
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Tthat was auctioned at Sotheby's, London, in 1982, is underlying scrollwork of thin vines. The pendants con-
one of the most important of the surviving large medal- tain a pair of red forked arabesques framing a lotus pal-
lion carpets with animals belonging to a controversial mette; the lower pendant is slightly broader. A rather
group that some historians have classified as the "Herat" crudely drawn cartouche, flanked by a pair of hares, lies
type, named after the fifteenth-century Timurid cultural between the pendants and the medallion. The field,
center located in the former East Persian province of which has no cornerpieces, consists of a lively profusion
Khorassan that is now in Afghanistan. More so than of mythical and real animals scurrying amidst a network

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