Oriental Rugs, Antique and Modern

by W. A. Hawley

Plate 17. So-called Polish Or Polonaise Carpet in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

One of the simplest ways of studying the pattern is to regard it as consisting of a number of units formed by a large rounded octagon encircled by eight heart-shaped escutcheons, and with a smaller rounded octagon at the centre of the diagonal lines connecting them. On the large octagons, which are of dark blue crossed by narrow bands of sable brown, is represented the fight of dragon and phœnix so common in the ornamentation of the Ming dynasty; and in the smaller octagons, which are plum colour, are four running lions in red, blue, and green. The eight escutcheons alternate in crimson and blue, and have arabesques and Chinese ducks. The large pentagonal-shaped areas of the ivory field are covered with a most symmetrically drawn tracery of tendrils and flowers in red, yellow, and blue; and in the smaller hexagonal-shaped areas are cloud bands of similar colours.

The border shows a marked advance over that of the preceding piece. The main stripe, which follows a pattern that with slight modification is adopted in many of the carpets of this and a later period, consists of a chain-like series of octagons similar to those of the field, separating elongated panels with crenated edges. The latter are adorned with cloud bands in yellow interlaced with delicate tendrils supporting flowers in red, yellow, green, and white, on a dark blue field; and surrounding them on a red ground is also a delicate tracery of leaves and flowers. The outer and inner stripes have arabesques and tendrils bearing flowers in red, green, and blue on a ground of golden yellow. All the colours of both field and border have mellowed into rich, beautiful hues in which is the most perfect harmony.

The intricacy and character of design, the delicacy of drawing, and the tones of colour indicate that this piece was woven near the beginning of the Safavid dynasty, in the early part of the XVI Century. Mr. Robinson ascribes its origin to Bagdad; but it seems far more probable that it came from the northwestern part of Persia, which was an important centre of textile art only a few years later. This piece and the two others described on the pages just preceding are among the most interesting carpets now existing; for they represent not only a very high standard of the textile craft, but also most important steps in its development.

There is no evidence to indicate how early animal carpets were woven in Persia. Dr. Martin found a piece with archaic drawing, that from its resemblance to an old tile of established age, he placed at about the year 1300 a. d.; but it was about the beginning of the XVI Century that were woven the first of those masterly pieces which displayed animals surrounded by a maze of floral life. Lions, leopards, boars, deer, and hounds were the principal motives. To each of these was ascribed some principle or quality, so that it has been assumed that the aim of the weaver was to give expression to some theme of interest.

A number of these carpets represent the chase and are called “Hunting Carpets.” The best of them are regarded by Dr. Martin as belonging to the latter half of the XVI Century for reasons indicated in the following extract from his work: “The manuscript of Nizami, one of the pearls of the British Museum, which was executed in Tabriz 1539-1542 for the Shah Tamasp, has the most wonderful designs on the margins. Although the manuscripts and the miniatures are signed by Persia’s most renowned masters, there is nothing to give a hint as to who has drawn these magnificent borders. This manuscript, which at the time it was written, was considered one of the most remarkable ‘the like of which the eye of time never beheld,’ plainly proves that the large carpets with hunting scenes must be relegated to a later time or to about 1560-1570. Both animals and trees are of a far more stately and earlier character in the manuscript.”

One of the best of these pieces with animals (Plate [14], opp. Page 72) is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, by which it was purchased at the Yerkes sale in 1910, for $15,200. It has a length of ten feet eleven inches with a breadth of five feet ten inches, and an average of four hundred and eighty knots to the square inch. Both warp and weft are of silk, and the pile is of wool. As it was confidently believed by Mr. Edward Stebbing[12] that this piece belonged for a long time to the Mosque of Ardebil, where Ismael had established his capital, and from which Tamasp subsequently moved; it is not improbable that it belongs to the early period, between the closing years of Ismael’s reign and the first part of the reign of Tamasp.[13] Nor is there anything in the technique of colour or design to convey a different impression, as the general colour of the field is a claret red, and that of the border a dark blue characteristic of this period.

The most noticeable feature of the carpet is the display of animal life amid the carefully balanced arrangement of floral figures. Four-fifths of the field can be divided into two perfect squares with sides equal to the breadth of the field; and the remainder will be equivalent to one-half of one of these squares. Each quarter of a square contains animals, probably intended to represent a lion, leopard, and boar, that are perfectly balanced with those of the adjacent and alternating quarters. Moreover, the same balance exists in the case of the smaller animals and floral forms. Thus it appears that each square forms a perfect unit in which is shown a remarkable relation between all parts. Such mathematical exactness indicates the highest artistic skill. The repetition of pattern also accentuates the predominant idea of animal life, which is rendered even more noticeable by the strong golden yellow of some of the group. Whoever has studied the early Iranian monuments remembers with how slight variation some of the drawing has been copied during subsequent generations; so that it is not surprising that Mr. Stebbing should call attention to the resemblance of some of the animals in this carpet to those of the rock-carved sculptures of Tak-i-Bostan near Kermanshah.

As is the case with most modern Persian rugs, there is no correspondence between the size of the animals and the flowers. Nevertheless the lack of harmony is not felt, as the animal and the floral life are intended to be regarded separately. The principal flowers of the field are peonies, some of which are woven with silver threads. They also appear in the border arranged with perfect precision within the folds of symmetrical cloud-bands and interlacing arabesques. The latter form a well-executed repetitive figure that suggests an origin for the reciprocal trefoil or lily pattern, as it is sometimes called, which received its highest development in the silk rugs of a later century.

On the whole, this piece is not far short of the highest sumptuary standard of a subsequent period, and is an excellent example of the artistic development of the earliest part of the Safavid dynasty. In few other carpets is combined such intricacy of design with richness and simplicity of colour.