Page 332 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

Among the wide variety of Indo-Persian field designs, sold by Vitell and Leopold Benguiat. This piece possess-
the Widener carpet is noteworthy because of its rare es a less complex layout of jagged, forking bands whose
combination of arabesque bands with a medallion and undulating movement describes arches of forked
cornerpiece scheme. The small, irregularly shaped octo- arabesque blossoms; it has quartered medallion corner-
foil central medallion, its two Herat-type pendants, and pieces like those of the Widener carpet, but lacks a cen-
four cornerpieces, are set on a densely ornamented field terpiece. The ivory vine scrollwork that runs throughout
composed of an underlying web of thin ivory vines dec- its ground is more carefully organized. A long, large car-
orated with a multitude of minuscule palmettes, lancet pet in the collection of the duke of Buccleuch and
leaves, and buds. The medallion lies above the carpet's Queensberry (Boughton House, near Kettering,
center, so the lower portion of the carpet is noticeably Northamptonshire, England) has a cartouche-form cen-
longer than the upper. The light blue cornerpieces are terpiece and no cornerpieces. Its ornate band system has
quarter sections of an eight-pointed star with ogee many crossovers, and its split arabesque blossoms are
points. Bold, dark blue arabesque bands with serrated quite florid, with numerous small clasping tendrils. A
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edges demarcate broad areas of the composition as they long fragment in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is
emerge from the paired lotus palmettes situated on the from a carpet that originally had two medallions on its
transverse axis between the medallion and pendants, centerline and halved medallions at the sides and cor-
proceed to describe arches around the palmettes, and nerpieces, between which arabesque bands led into large
then follow the edge of the field until they disappear into flower heads with curled-back tips.
the border at each of the carpet's ends. Their progress More graceful renditions of the Widener carpet's bor-
can be more easily followed in the carpet's lower section, der, which was often used in Tabriz medallion carpets of
which is less worn and has better preserved colors. the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, appear in
Double brackets of arabesque bands form a set of paren- the more common type of Indo-Persian carpets whose
theses at each side of the medallion. The ornate frame- fields contain variously arranged vine-scrolls, palmettes,
works of ivory leafage, which are woven prominently and cloud bands. A small example is in the Victoria and
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along the central axis, one near the midpoint of each Albert Museum, London. An extremely large one, with
end, are unusual design elements. an unusual blue ground ornamented with bird forms
The predominately dark blue border assumes a lighter, scattered among palmettes, flowers, and cloudbands, has
greener shade in the lower half of the carpet. Its design passed from the McMullan collection into the
consists of a reciprocal treatment of a double system of Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 16 Two other
arabesque bands, one tan and one red, that form a series carpets that feature this border (one with a rare field
of interlinking arches over transversely placed Herat- design in panels) are in the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian,
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type palmettes that alternately turn inward and outward. Lisbon, Portugal. Although this basic inner guard stripe
Despite the crude drafting, the corners have been suc- pattern is common to many Indo-Persian carpets, it is
cessfully negotiated. A dark brown vine bearing ivory rarely found in this reciprocal, bicolored variety of which
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rosettes divides the inner guard stripe into green and at least five additional examples are known. The outer
brown reciprocal segments that are ornamented with guard stripe appears less frequently—only three other
small leaflets. The red outer guard stripe contains an examples come to mind. 19
angular sweeping vine decorated with rosettes and buds. The Widener carpet was probably made at a relatively
The Widener carpet is closely related to a thirty-two- late date. The systematic manufacture of Indo-Persian
foot-long carpet formerly in the W. A. Clark collection carpets began late in the sixteenth century, but it is
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(Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington), which was also unclear whether any of the earliest examples survive.
formerly owned by Duke Don Gaetano de Braganza and Most specimens date from the seventeenth century and

316E DECORATIVE ARTS