back
to "An Educational Guide to Antique Shirvan Prayer rugs" main page
Antique Shirvan Prayer rug, Shirvan Region, Azerbaijan. dated 1310 (=1892). 119 x 127 cm. published Ralph Kaffel's Caucasian Prayer Rugs, plate 83 |
This rug features a rare simplified version of the classic Konaghend design,
an intricate mosaic of interwoven elements based on conjoined hexagons (see
plates 45 and 46). The Konaghend pattern is arguably the most intricate and
complex of all Caucasian field designs. It is almost certainly rooted in the
'Lotto' designs of sixteenth-century Ushak rugs from Anatolia (an intricate
lattice tracery pattern featuring conjoined hexagons; so called because of
its depiction in paintings by the sixteenth-century artist Lorenzo Lotto).
Various bird and animal forms may be identified in Konaghend patterns;
whether these were intentional trompe l'oeil or accidental imagery on the
part of the weaver is as yet an unresolved issue.
|