Page 320 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

of scrolling vines. The overall draftsmanship lacks the Kunst, Vienna), and in a fragment at the Victoria and
complexity and precision seen in other Herat-type car- Albert Museum, London. 9
pets. The vinework system connects leaves and blossoms Christine Klose has divided the Herat animal carpets,
of various shapes and sizes, as well as twelve larger fan- rugs, and fragments into four distinct types based on
shaped palmettes, six of which are placed on each longi- their designs: early animal carpets with in-and-out-
tudinal side of the medallion. 6 design (such as the "Emperor" Carpets); large medallion
The animals are mostly oriented on a vertical axis carpets with animals (including the Widener carpet);
toward the medallion, but veer outward as they approach smaller medallion carpets with animals; and smaller car-
10
it. At each side a tiger pursues a spotted ibex who runs pets with a directional design. The designs of the other
toward the carpet's end. The composition is given a hori- two complete Herat medallion carpets bear only a gener-
zontal thrust by a quartet of ch'i-lins set around the al resemblance to the Widener carpet. Animals in the
medallion who sprint toward the border; the ominous Seley Carpet are restricted to its interlocking cartouche
scenes on each side of the pendants, where onagers suck- border, and its palmette and floral field features corner-
ling their colts are stalked by huge leopards; and at each pieces. The carpet auctioned at Sotheby's in 1982 has an
side of the palmettes, where lionesses sink their teeth and elongated lobed medallion that contains four pairs of
claws into the backs of speckled bulls; wolves who observe symmetrically arranged trees in which four birds roost,
the latter encounter climb the vinework to escape a simi- an interlocking cartouche border, and the field has cor-
lar fate. Two lambs try to avoid the melee by walking nerpieces. Much more closely related to the Widener
inconspicuously toward the carpet's end, while stags flee- example is a carpet (formerly Rothschild collection, now
11
ing a pair of lions emerging from the border rush toward private collection) whose less skillfully drawn medallion
its center. In each corner a light blue goat attempts to also features an arrangement of cloudbands and
escape certain death by leaping out of the field. With the arabesque arches backed by vinework. Its field contains
exception of the onager and her suckling colt, these ani- trees and shrubs in addition to animals, and it has an
mals appear in other Herat carpets. The designers likely arabesque band and palmette "strapwork" border. There
transferred their forms, and those of the palmettes, by is a nearly identical counterpart to this carpet, fragments
using carpet patterns or cartoons, much in the way that of which survive in the collections of the Textile Museum,
court miniaturists reproduced similar figures in royal Washington, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 12
manuscripts with the aid of pounced tracings. 7 The Widener Carpet is further related to Klose's sub-
The "strapwork" green ground border is a typical fea- group of medallion, animal, and tree carpets that were
ture of the Herat group, 8 consisting of a thick, angular woven in a shorter, broader format, whose field designs
yellow band with minor bifurcations that meanders generally lack pendants, and whose draftsmanship is
around paillettes outlined in red. Both forms are notice- inferior to the larger and presumably older members of
ably compressed at the top of the carpet. Single pal- the class. Most notable among these are: an example for-
mettes, set on a diagonal axis, occupy each of the carpet's merly in the McMullan collection (Arthur M. Sadder
13
four corners. Both the bands and ground are decorated Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts), whose medallion
with a network of vines on which small lotus palmettes, is decorated with four trees; two rugs in the Musee
florets, and leaflets grow. The thin ivory inner guard Historique des Tissus, Lyons; 14 one in the Rijksmuseum,
stripe contains a green vine that connects miniature pal- Amsterdam; 15 an unusual pair in the Metropolitan
mettes, as does the slightly wider orange outer guard Museum of Art whose medallions are decorated with gar-
stripe. Considerably more refined versions of the den party scenes in which seated nobles are attended by
Widener carpet's border appear in a superbly woven cor- musicians and servants; 16 and a rug in the Metropolitan
ner fragment (Osterreichisches Museum fur angewandte Museum of Art whose medallion features a less complex

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