Page 227 - The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent

158. Prayer rug with a pair of columns, second half sixteenth century 159. Prayer rug with three pairs of columns, second half sixteenth century
(Kuwait National Museum, LNS 29 R) (New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 22.100.51)

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mosque lamp with polychrome floral motifs, suspended by about the same size (168 by 128 centimeters, or 66Vs by 50 /s
three chains, has parallels in ceramic examples, particularly inches) and may have been made as a companion piece using
the pair of lamps made for the Mosque of Sokollu Mehmed the same cartoon.
Pa§a in the 1570s (see 195). The mihrab niche with a hang- A more complex field was employed on the Metropolitan
ing lamp that symbolizes celestial light, employed in religious Museum seccade (159), which has almost the same dimen-
buildings, is incorporated into the repertoire of the rugs. The sions as the one discussed above as well as an identical bor-
iconography and design of the seccades are specifically con- der flanked by the same guard stripes. Its field, however, is
ceived for ritual prayer with references to life hereafter, possi- divided into three compartments by additional pairs of col-
bly for the souls of the deceased. The fact that two of the ex- umns. Their pedestals, shafts, capitals, and the miniature
amples in Istanbul were found in imperial mausoleums domical buildings above the entablatures at the bases of the
suggests that they were intended as donations to turbes. 116 arches follow the format of the Kuwait rug. The central com-
The same format and decoration, with minor variations in partment, rendered in deep emerald green, has a rounded
the colors used for the motifs and their backgrounds, appear arch with a mosque lamp; the side arches are pointed and
in the Cincinnati rug, formerly in the Moore Collection. It is the spandrels are filled with rumis, cartouches, and blossoms.

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