Turkey Carpets

Turkish carpets were the most valuable Islamic textiles traded to Europe in the second half of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, and were ostentatiously displayed in Venice where they were a highly profitable re-export commodity and symbol of the commercial power of the Republic. These striking wool carpets, knotted in the classical symmetrical knot, were covered with patterns based on two or more geometric units which could be infinitely repeated. Their prestigious status arose from two principal factors, as noted by Rosamund Mack: "only the richest Europeans could afford them, and the supply of fashionable carpets was limited". Turkish carpets cost more than other imported Islamic manufactured goods, and the best carpets were as valuable as the paintings and sculptures displayed by the richest Italians in their palaces. Thus it is not surprising that the ruling and urban elite in Italy and elsewhere in Europe displayed their Turkish carpets as status symbols both in their residences and in the art they commissioned. Carpets were represented at the base of the throne in paintings of the Virgin and Child, signifying their exalted status and distinguishing a highly venerated space, and many of the kings and queens of Europe, as well as their ambassadors and other aristocrats, were depicted with their favourite carpets as symbols of their prestige, riches, connections, and taste.

In Portugal, the ruling elite also accompanied the fashions of the Eastern Mediterranean carpet trade with considerable attention, and references to carpets from the Levant and Turkey (Turquie) are recorded from at least the beginning of the fifteenth century. Throughout the first half of the following century, and certainly up until at least the 1540s, they were the most prestigious Asian textiles put on display. Carpets from Xio made prominent appearances at the wedding of King João III's brother, D. Duarte (1515-1540) with Isabel of Bragança, in 1537, and at the betrothal of the King's daughter, Infanta Maria Manuela (1527-1545) with Prince Philip of Asturias, the future King of Spain (r. 1556-1598). Although frequently miss-transcribed as 'Pyo' (pious), the name Xio reflects the contemporary spelling of the Greek Island of Chios, located off the Anatolian coast. Many of the Turkish 'painter' carpets exported to the West are known to have been manufactured nearby, some 300 kilometres inland at the town of Ushak, and so this island in the Eastern Mediterranean was a very logical entrepôt for their transhipment to Christian Europe.

The history of the Turkish carpet in Portugal contrasts in a number of ways with that observed for Renaissance Italy, and although they are recorded in the collections of the House of Avis (r. 1385-1495), they are not depicted until the sixteenth century. The first representation of an identifiable Turkish carpet dates from 1523 and appears to show the border of a 'large-pattern Holbein'. This type of carpet is among the earliest Ottoman patterns to be depicted in Italian art (c. 1450) and its relatively late appearance in Portuguese painting, and some 15 years after the first representations of Spanish carpets, emphasizes the high esteem with which local Iberian products were held by the Portuguese throughout the fifteenth century.

This situation changed dramatically with the decline of the Mudejar industry and Portugal's rising importance in Europe after Vasco da Gama's historic journey. Spanish carpets disappear from Portuguese paintings in the second quarter of the sixteenth century and are replaced by depictions of Turkish imports. The appearance of these so-called 'painter' carpets - 'small-pattern Holbeins', 'Lottos' and 'Bellinis' - coincides with the height of their representation in Italian art, demonstrating the swiftness of Portugal's trading connections with Venice at this time and the attentiveness with which the country's artists and their patrons accompanied contemporary carpet fashions.

Bibliography:
HALLETT, Jessica, "Tapetes orientais e ocidentais: intercâmbios peninsulares no século XVI", in O Largo Tempo do Renascimento: Arte, Propaganda e Poder, Vítor Serrão (ed.), Lisbon, Caleidoscópio, 2008, pp. 225-257. HALLETT, Jessica and PEREIRA, Teresa Pacheco (eds.), The Oriental Carpet in Portugal, carpets and paintings, 15th to 18th centuries, Lisbon, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga/ Instituto dos Museus e da Conservação, exhibition catalogue, 2007. HALLETT, Jessica, "From Floor to Wall: An oriental carpet in a Portuguese mural painting of The Annunciation", in Out of the Stream: Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Mural Painting, Luís Urbano Afonso and Vítor Serrão (eds.), Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007, pp. 141-165. MACK, Rosamond E., Bazaar to Piazza, Islamic trade and Italian art, 1300-1600, London, University of California Press, 2002. MILLS, John, "Eastern Mediterranean Carpets in Western Paintings", Hali, 4.1, 1981, pp. 53-55. MILLS, John, "Near Eastern Carpets in Italian Paintings", Oriental Carpet and Textile Studies, vol. 2, 1986, pp. 109-121.

Author: Jessica Hallett