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This is an unusual large fragment of a 17th century central Anatolian rug
from the astonishing collection of theTiirk ve Islam Eserleri Museum in
Istanbul. The rug has just been conserved in preparation for theTIEM's
special exhibition for ICOC XI.
In fact the rug has been published
once before, in 1999, in Nazan Olcer and Walter Denny's Anatolian Carpets:
Masterpieces from the Museum ofTurkish and Islamic Arts Istanbul, where it
was duscussed at some length by Professor Denny, but as that superb luxury
volume, published by Ahmed Ertug, was priced at $1000, not too many HALI
readers will have seen it.
There are no direct comaparisons of
which we are aware for the elaborately stylised field design, which Denny
considers to be derived from a textile design, but forms echoing elements in
East and Central Anatolian yastiks and prayer rugs are apparent, and the
border pattern, here on an ivory ground, can also be seen on a blue ground,
in an undoubtedly old Turkish medallion carpet in the Islamic Art Museum in
Berlin (no. 84, 898, see Friedrich Spuhler, Oriental Carpets, 1988, pi.28,
p. 171). The scrolling leaves in the field (perhaps Turkish 'sickie-leaves')
combine to form in-and out palmette shapes, but the plant forms used
throughout have a zoomorphic ambiguity which helps to stir the imaginations
of those who love early Turkish carpets. The spidery tracery within the leaf
forms reflects the underlying spiralling forms of Ushak medallion rugs.
It is interesting to note that there is a obvious attempt to create a
corner solution in the border seen in the sole surviving corner of the
present rug, a characteristic that is considered "Persinate" rather than
Turkish.
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