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拍品专文
Knotted pile carpet weaving was introduced to Spain by the Islamic invaders who ruled the Iberian peninsula from the 8th to the late 15th century. Records show that carpet weaving was well-established in Spain by the 12th century and the quality was such, that by the late 13th century Spanish weavings were listed in royal and ecclesiastical collections throughout Europe. After the expulsion of the Moors, in 1492, carpet weaving continued to develop, tastes changed and new designs began to flourish.
From the carpets that have survived to the present day, we can discern three predominant styles became fashionable; the so-called ‘Admiral’ or ‘Armorial’ carpets of small lattice design bearing coats of arms which bore similarities to previous fourteenth century examples; those that closely followed contemporary Turkish design and the third based on the new emerging European silk and velvet textile designs. New weaving methods and design technology in Italy allowed weavers to produce sumptuous damask brocades with large-scale bold designs in an elegantly restrained ton-sur-ton palette. Although not entirely clear, it is thought that these new European designs were woven in the Alcaraz region of southern Castile. It is with this last group that the present lot bares most in common, visible in the overall strap-work lattice enclosing bold stylised pomegranate forms. A worn fragment of that group is in the Musée Historique des Tissus, Lyon, inv.no. 26.658, (Cornelia Bateman Faraday, European and American Carpets and Rugs, Suffolk, 1990, pl.V, p.39) with the main part of that carpet remaining in the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C (Kühnel and Bellinger, op. cit., p.11, pl.IX). A further example is published by Edoardo Concaro and Alberto Levi, Sovrani Tappeti, Il Tappeto orientale dal XV al XIX secolo, exhibition catalogue, Milan, 1999, pl.165, p.192.
In the sixteenth century there was an ever increasing use of Renaissance decoration sourced from imported Genoese and Venetian textiles. Also referred to as an artichoke, thistle, or pinecone this design vocabulary remained much the same over the course of the next two centuries but with small changes occurring in its formation. A number of carpets formerly in the collection of Count Welczeck of Austria, show this continued love for the ogival diaper and pomegranate (M.S.Dimand and J.Mailey, Oriental Rugs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1973, pp.258-9). An extremely similar sixteenth century example, but of narrower proportions is in the Museum of the Hispanic Society of America, (Bateman Faraday, op cit. fig.30, p.53). Both carpets have a clear vertical symmetry with the ascending pomegranates and a strong horizontal symmetry created by the brown and white chevron terminals of the strap-work lattice.
Spanish carpet production continued through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with large quantities woven for export however the quality of the production began to deteriorate and the designs became inferior, as seen on a rug formerly in the collection of D.Enrique Traumann (José Ferrandis Torre, Exposición de Alfombras Antiguas Espa?olas, Madrid, May-June 1933, pl. 46). Although woven with the same design as the present lot it has none of the clarity of execution and the ogival lattice has become so elongated that the pomegranates within each appear distorted. It is extraordinary that the present rug has survived in such good condition, with the colours remaining as strong as when they were first woven.
From the carpets that have survived to the present day, we can discern three predominant styles became fashionable; the so-called ‘Admiral’ or ‘Armorial’ carpets of small lattice design bearing coats of arms which bore similarities to previous fourteenth century examples; those that closely followed contemporary Turkish design and the third based on the new emerging European silk and velvet textile designs. New weaving methods and design technology in Italy allowed weavers to produce sumptuous damask brocades with large-scale bold designs in an elegantly restrained ton-sur-ton palette. Although not entirely clear, it is thought that these new European designs were woven in the Alcaraz region of southern Castile. It is with this last group that the present lot bares most in common, visible in the overall strap-work lattice enclosing bold stylised pomegranate forms. A worn fragment of that group is in the Musée Historique des Tissus, Lyon, inv.no. 26.658, (Cornelia Bateman Faraday, European and American Carpets and Rugs, Suffolk, 1990, pl.V, p.39) with the main part of that carpet remaining in the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C (Kühnel and Bellinger, op. cit., p.11, pl.IX). A further example is published by Edoardo Concaro and Alberto Levi, Sovrani Tappeti, Il Tappeto orientale dal XV al XIX secolo, exhibition catalogue, Milan, 1999, pl.165, p.192.
In the sixteenth century there was an ever increasing use of Renaissance decoration sourced from imported Genoese and Venetian textiles. Also referred to as an artichoke, thistle, or pinecone this design vocabulary remained much the same over the course of the next two centuries but with small changes occurring in its formation. A number of carpets formerly in the collection of Count Welczeck of Austria, show this continued love for the ogival diaper and pomegranate (M.S.Dimand and J.Mailey, Oriental Rugs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1973, pp.258-9). An extremely similar sixteenth century example, but of narrower proportions is in the Museum of the Hispanic Society of America, (Bateman Faraday, op cit. fig.30, p.53). Both carpets have a clear vertical symmetry with the ascending pomegranates and a strong horizontal symmetry created by the brown and white chevron terminals of the strap-work lattice.
Spanish carpet production continued through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with large quantities woven for export however the quality of the production began to deteriorate and the designs became inferior, as seen on a rug formerly in the collection of D.Enrique Traumann (José Ferrandis Torre, Exposición de Alfombras Antiguas Espa?olas, Madrid, May-June 1933, pl. 46). Although woven with the same design as the present lot it has none of the clarity of execution and the ogival lattice has become so elongated that the pomegranates within each appear distorted. It is extraordinary that the present rug has survived in such good condition, with the colours remaining as strong as when they were first woven.