Publication Date
2009
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Although the Italian artist Sebastiano del Piombo (1485-1547) was apparently the first to paint a related Turkish carpet, the characteristic field pattern of stylized arabesques is associated with the name of Lorenzo Lotto (c. 1480-1556) who more than 25 years later included similar carpets in a number of his works. The 'Lotto' pattern may be characterised as a variation on the 'small-pattern Holbein' design and apparently displaced it in popularity. The partly geometrical and partly floral ornaments of the arabesque lattice of the 'Lotto' pattern are cast in yellow on a red ground, with small dark blue and white accentuations. This colour scheme, both in surviving carpets and in painted representations, is highly stereotyped; only a very small minority of examples depart from this model. The earlier examples mostly have forms of kufic border (like the 'small-pattern Holbeins' before them), usually white on a blue-green ground.
These striking carpets are relatively abundant in Portuguese paintings and first appear under the table in Gregório Lopes's painting of the Presentation of the Head of Saint John the Baptist, c. 1538-39 (Igreja de São João Baptista, Tomar), and in his Annunciation from the original altarpiece of Santos-o-Novo, c. 1540 (Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon). Lopes was appointed court painter and worked for the most prestigious Portuguese patrons and hence, he was undoubtedly painting the most highly-valued carpets available to the aristocracy at the time. The carpets he portrayed were also the height of fashion and the dates of these two paintings coincide precisely with the period when appearances of 'Lotto' carpets reached their peak in Italian art, and are prior to the first depictions of them in North European painting. In the important inventory of the 5th Duke of Bragança, D. Teodósio I (d. 1563), the 'Lottos' are the most numerous and expensive carpets of the 'painter' types recorded and also in the best condition.
The 'Lotto' pattern continued to be manufactured during the seventeenth century and to be appreciated in Portugal, as it was in Italy and Northern Europe, and appears in André Reinoso's Saint Francis and the Miracle of the Porciuncula, c. 1628-30 (Museu Municipal de Óbidos), in front of the altar, under the kneeling figure of the saint. This carpet is distinguished from the sixteenth-century examples represented by Gregório Lopes and other artists by its 'ornamental' arabesque design with hooks, and its cartouche border.
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. MILLS, John, "Lotto Carpets in Western Paintings", Hali, 3.4, 1981, pp. 278-289. 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. YDEMA, Onno, Carpets and their Datings in Netherlandish Paintings, 1540-1700, Zutphen, Walburg Pers., 1991.
Author: Jessica Hallett
These striking carpets are relatively abundant in Portuguese paintings and first appear under the table in Gregório Lopes's painting of the Presentation of the Head of Saint John the Baptist, c. 1538-39 (Igreja de São João Baptista, Tomar), and in his Annunciation from the original altarpiece of Santos-o-Novo, c. 1540 (Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon). Lopes was appointed court painter and worked for the most prestigious Portuguese patrons and hence, he was undoubtedly painting the most highly-valued carpets available to the aristocracy at the time. The carpets he portrayed were also the height of fashion and the dates of these two paintings coincide precisely with the period when appearances of 'Lotto' carpets reached their peak in Italian art, and are prior to the first depictions of them in North European painting. In the important inventory of the 5th Duke of Bragança, D. Teodósio I (d. 1563), the 'Lottos' are the most numerous and expensive carpets of the 'painter' types recorded and also in the best condition.
The 'Lotto' pattern continued to be manufactured during the seventeenth century and to be appreciated in Portugal, as it was in Italy and Northern Europe, and appears in André Reinoso's Saint Francis and the Miracle of the Porciuncula, c. 1628-30 (Museu Municipal de Óbidos), in front of the altar, under the kneeling figure of the saint. This carpet is distinguished from the sixteenth-century examples represented by Gregório Lopes and other artists by its 'ornamental' arabesque design with hooks, and its cartouche border.
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. MILLS, John, "Lotto Carpets in Western Paintings", Hali, 3.4, 1981, pp. 278-289. 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. YDEMA, Onno, Carpets and their Datings in Netherlandish Paintings, 1540-1700, Zutphen, Walburg Pers., 1991.
Author: Jessica Hallett