-
Woven silk
Unknown - Enlarge image
Woven silk
- Place of origin:
Turkey (made)
Bursa (city), Turkey (probably, made) - Date:
late 16th century (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Silk and metal thread woven in the lampas technique
- Museum number:
763-1900
- Gallery location:
In Storage
This textile was made from blue, red, black and white silk thread and a metal thread used to create areas of gold ground. It was woven in the lampas technique, in which two distinct types of weave (satin and twill) were combined using a drawloom, which had two sets of warps and wefts and a mechanism for creating the pattern, operated by a second weaver, called the drawboy.
The pattern consists of two equally balanced elements: the roughly oval medallions set in staggered rows and the undulating framework that runs between them. The framework is sometimes called an ‘ogival lattice’ since it can be seen as a series of ogival (that is, pointed) arches. The outline of the medallions is formed by feathery leaves, while their centres are filled with a symmetrical pattern of arabesque scrollwork – rumi. The outline of the lattice is formed by smaller, simpler leaves, and it is filled with trails of fantastic blossoms – hatayi – punctuated by an equally fantastic pomegranate motif.
The origins of many of these design elements can be detected in both Iranian and Italian weaving of 1400–1500, but their combination here is distinctive of Turkish production around 1500–1600. During this time, great quantities of luxury silks of this type were woven in Turkey, both for domestic consumption and for export. The main silk weaving centre was Bursa, the first capital of the sultans of the Ottoman dynasty (about 1300–1924), located in north-western Turkey.
