Carpet
1550-1600 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
The design of this beautiful carpet follows a vertical symmetry, with right and left sides mirroring each other. The central field is dark red, and filled with two dynamic elements: pairs of wild animals and spiralling leafy stems of huge lotus flowers. The animals are depicted with a vibrant fluency, and include prowling tigers, crouching leopards, running wolves and more. Lions pin down bulls, while leopards pounce on mountain goats. More magical creatures are also to be found, with close inspection, hidden within the stylised plant forms. The surrounding border is on a white ground, with a series of single lotus flowers outlined in green, joined by a red half-palmette scroll. These bold motifs are filled with tiny details, including further flowers, Chinese-style clouds and animal heads.
This belongs to a well-known group of carpets and carpet fragments from Iran, today dispersed in public and private collections around the world, usually called Hunting Carpets. These share the same structure, and often the same design cartoon. They are closely related to an exceptional pair of carpets known as the “Emperor Carpets” (in New York Metropolitan Museum and Vienna Museum fur Angewandte Kunst), which are inscribed with Persian verses dedicated to “the king of the world”.
Carpets like this confirm the design correlation with the arts of the book in Safavid Iran: these wild creatures all spring from the landscape scenes, border illumination and album-drawings of the sixteenth century, in which a minute and precise draughtsmanship was rated the height of skill. For virtuoso performance, Safavid painters such as Sultan Muhammad concealed miniature figures within the natural world, by painting tiny faces in rock formations and even tinier animal combats in the clouds. A similar delivery occurs in this carpet, where red-eyed lions and serpentine dragons crouch in the flower-heads.
This belongs to a well-known group of carpets and carpet fragments from Iran, today dispersed in public and private collections around the world, usually called Hunting Carpets. These share the same structure, and often the same design cartoon. They are closely related to an exceptional pair of carpets known as the “Emperor Carpets” (in New York Metropolitan Museum and Vienna Museum fur Angewandte Kunst), which are inscribed with Persian verses dedicated to “the king of the world”.
Carpets like this confirm the design correlation with the arts of the book in Safavid Iran: these wild creatures all spring from the landscape scenes, border illumination and album-drawings of the sixteenth century, in which a minute and precise draughtsmanship was rated the height of skill. For virtuoso performance, Safavid painters such as Sultan Muhammad concealed miniature figures within the natural world, by painting tiny faces in rock formations and even tinier animal combats in the clouds. A similar delivery occurs in this carpet, where red-eyed lions and serpentine dragons crouch in the flower-heads.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Silk warp and weft, wool pile |
| Brief description | Carpet, composed of three joined fragments from a larger carpet, wool knotted pile on silk foundation, red field with animals, cloud bands, lotus leaves and lotus flowers, over two spiralling systems of leafy scrollwork, white main border with half-palmette scrolls, lotus medallions and cloudbands, Safavid Iran, 1550-1600 |
| Physical description | Warp: undyed silk; Z2S; 36-38 threads per in (144-52 per dm); depressed. Weft: undyed silk; Z-spun, unplied; 2 parallel threads per shoot and 3 shoots after each row of knots; 16 knots per in (64 per dm). Pile: wool; 10 colours; red, orange, yellow, dark green, green, dark blue, light blue, purple, dark brown/black (corroded), white; asymmetrical knot open to left and tied around 2 threads; 288-304 knot per sq in (4608-4864 per sq dm). Side finish: missing - subsequently bound with cotton tape. End finish: as side finish. Field: red ground with two systems of spiralling stems running the length of the carpet. The dominant system is dark blue outlined in white and the secondary system is dark green. The blue spiralling stems link the large palmettes and composite blossoms, and the green spiralling stems bear small blossoms, rosettes and leaves. The pattern is mirrored across the central vertical axis. There is one pair of very large composite blossoms, and many more of varying sizes, and cloud bands surround some of the larger motifs. There are both real and mythical animals. Some of the mythical animals are enclosed within palmettes. From the top, the wild animals are (in pairs): antlered stag, wolf, leopard, leopard attacking horned goat, horned goat, tigers, lion attacking spotted bull, leopard, and wolf. Main border: white ground with red strapwork and large ogival medallions containing elaborate palmettes, many of which are wreathed by a stems of large blossoms. Inner border: dark brown/blue (corroded) ground with a light green meander bearing predominantly yellow, green and red blossoms, and leaves. Outer border: red ground with an elongated double meander; one is dark blue outlined with white linking mainly orange and blue palmettes and the other is green and links sprays of light coloured flowers. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Gallery label | Jameel Gallery
Carpet with Blossoms and Animals
Iran
1550–1660
In the red field, scrolling stems carry huge lotus leaves and a variety of blossoms. On them and between them, leopards, tigers and other animals fight, rest and run.
The lively design is not symmetrical, which shows that this is only part of a larger carpet that was shortened in the 19th century. It was once twice as long.
Silk warps (Z2S), silk wefts and wool pile
Museum no. 601-1894
(2006) |
| Object history | This is a composite carpet, restored heavily in 1890-91, when three large fragments were attached together. First received on loan from Jane Spencer Brunton on 20 June 1891, and eventually sold to the South Kensington Museum (today the V&A) for £300 in 1894. In July 1891, the carpet had been the subject of a negligence lawsuit: while deposited for cleaning with the London furniture firm Maple & Co., the carpet was damaged in an accidental fire. Brunton had originally purchased the carpet from a Mr Donaldson in 1881, for £1,000, and at the trial, the damaged carpet (although patched) was judged still to be worth this sum. The following year, Brunton donated a further fragment to the Museum (38-1892). The original carpet would have measured c. 7.5 x 3.5 metres. Following the damage at Maples, the repair work was done at Chiswick School of Arts and Crafts. Sections of the narrow inner border may have been re-woven at the same time. The V&A holds two further fragments from the same carpet (38-1892 and T.147-1958), and further fragments have been identified in other museum-collections. A matching twin carpet has also been identified, and is in the Museum fur Angewandte Kunst in Vienna. These belong to the same group as the two twin "Emperors' Carpets", one in the same Vienna museum, and the other in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. |
| Subject depicted | |
| Summary | The design of this beautiful carpet follows a vertical symmetry, with right and left sides mirroring each other. The central field is dark red, and filled with two dynamic elements: pairs of wild animals and spiralling leafy stems of huge lotus flowers. The animals are depicted with a vibrant fluency, and include prowling tigers, crouching leopards, running wolves and more. Lions pin down bulls, while leopards pounce on mountain goats. More magical creatures are also to be found, with close inspection, hidden within the stylised plant forms. The surrounding border is on a white ground, with a series of single lotus flowers outlined in green, joined by a red half-palmette scroll. These bold motifs are filled with tiny details, including further flowers, Chinese-style clouds and animal heads. This belongs to a well-known group of carpets and carpet fragments from Iran, today dispersed in public and private collections around the world, usually called Hunting Carpets. These share the same structure, and often the same design cartoon. They are closely related to an exceptional pair of carpets known as the “Emperor Carpets” (in New York Metropolitan Museum and Vienna Museum fur Angewandte Kunst), which are inscribed with Persian verses dedicated to “the king of the world”. Carpets like this confirm the design correlation with the arts of the book in Safavid Iran: these wild creatures all spring from the landscape scenes, border illumination and album-drawings of the sixteenth century, in which a minute and precise draughtsmanship was rated the height of skill. For virtuoso performance, Safavid painters such as Sultan Muhammad concealed miniature figures within the natural world, by painting tiny faces in rock formations and even tinier animal combats in the clouds. A similar delivery occurs in this carpet, where red-eyed lions and serpentine dragons crouch in the flower-heads. |
| Associated objects | |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | 601-1894 |
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| Record created | June 2, 2004 |
| Record URL |
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