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2009
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Carpet weaving techniques were also transmitted to Portugal with the spread of Islam, and although no carpets or painted representations of them have yet been identified, textual evidence confirms the presence of Mudejar weavers (tapeceiros or tapeteiros mouros) in the country. The earliest documents date from the reign of King João I (r. 1385-1433) and name weavers in Lisbon who worked for the Portuguese court. They are consistently referred to as Moors and their personal names, such as Ahmad and Muhammad, confirm their Arab heritage, while the existence of the surname, Sevilhão, also implies ancestral links between one of the weavers' families and the city of Seville in Spain.
These men were specialized in the manufacture of carpets (tapetes) and did not produce wall hangings (pannos de armar) or flat-weave rush mats (esteiras), and must have been highly accomplished to have caught the attention of the court and to have been appointed as royal weavers ('our weavers': nossos tapeceiros or tapeteiros). Their products were highly appreciated and entered royal dowries and even the collections of the Nasrid rulers at Granada, where they were described as garbia or garvia. What these 'colourful' 'wool-pile' carpets looked like remains speculation, but they probably followed the Spanish tradition and were carried out using the single-warp knot (and were not flat-weave carpets or kilims).
In 1430 the only surviving daughter of King João I, Infanta D. Isabel (1397-1471), married the Duke of Burgundy and took with her to France, "onze grands [e] douze moyens tapis velus de Portugal [e] quatre petits tapis de velus de Turquie" - descriptions which would appear to confirm the production of luxurious knotted-pile carpets in the country for the court. Unfortunately, no information is as yet forthcoming on the designs of these Portuguese carpets but their existence does raise important questions about whether all of the surviving carpets currently considered to be of Spanish origin were made exclusively in Spain, or also by the highly-regarded royal weavers of Lisbon. Indeed, some of the representations of carpets with Spanish parallels in Portuguese art may reflect local production.
The royal privileges extended to the Lisbon weavers gave them tax immunities as well as various protections for themselves and their employees, and the court treasurers were instructed to support them with their good offices. When King Afonso V (r. 1438-81) served an edict removing privileges from the Moorish community, the weavers complained and he agreed to reinstate their rights on 10 September 1454. This suggests that they were valuable contributors to the local economy, and that their products were highly regarded, something which is further implied, when, on 3 March 1471, King Afonso allowed the royal weaver, Mafamede Lobo, to have two apprentices in his workshop. The King established heavy fines for anyone who might seek to employ them elsewhere, and ordered that once the apprentices had learnt their trade, they should be replaced by two others.
King João II (r. 1481-1495) also favoured the Moorish weavers, probably also for economic reasons, and on 2 June 1492, precisely six months after the fall of Granada, he approved the continuation of the privileges previously granted to them by his predecessors. According to Jerome Münzer, the doctor and geographer of Nuremburg who visited the Iberian Peninsula, from August 1494 to April 1495, the merchandise assembled by the Portuguese for trade with Guiné included "wool cloths in a variety of colours [and] carpets from Tunis". In his De Inventione Genee he also noted that King João II had faithful copies of carpets brought from Tunis and Fez made in Portuguese workshops. This would certainly seem to imply the existence of vibrant industries on both sides of the Mediterranean, of considerable interest to the Portuguese king, as well as a demand for carpets in the long-distance trade with West Africa which may have stimulated his interest in the local industry.
In 1496 King Manuel I (r. 1495-1521) expelled the Muslims and Jews to fulfil the obligations of his marriage agreement to Isabel of Arágon and Castile (1470-1498), daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. The Mudejar workshops in Lisbon appear to have been abandoned shortly thereafter, although four carpet weavers (tecelães de tapetes) still worked in the city in 1551. It is possible that they were Christian converts who continued their craft well into the sixteenth century, but if this did indeed occur, the tradition of making knotted-pile carpets in Portugal died soon after, in contrast to the Spanish tradition which has continued up until today.
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. HOUSEGO, Jenny, "Literary references to carpets in North Africa", Oriental Carpet and Textile Studies, vol. 2, 1986, pp. 103-8. VITERBO, F. M. Sousa, Artes Industriais Portuguesas - A Tapeçaria, Coimbra, Imprensa da Universidade, 1902.
Autor: Jessica Hallett
These men were specialized in the manufacture of carpets (tapetes) and did not produce wall hangings (pannos de armar) or flat-weave rush mats (esteiras), and must have been highly accomplished to have caught the attention of the court and to have been appointed as royal weavers ('our weavers': nossos tapeceiros or tapeteiros). Their products were highly appreciated and entered royal dowries and even the collections of the Nasrid rulers at Granada, where they were described as garbia or garvia. What these 'colourful' 'wool-pile' carpets looked like remains speculation, but they probably followed the Spanish tradition and were carried out using the single-warp knot (and were not flat-weave carpets or kilims).
In 1430 the only surviving daughter of King João I, Infanta D. Isabel (1397-1471), married the Duke of Burgundy and took with her to France, "onze grands [e] douze moyens tapis velus de Portugal [e] quatre petits tapis de velus de Turquie" - descriptions which would appear to confirm the production of luxurious knotted-pile carpets in the country for the court. Unfortunately, no information is as yet forthcoming on the designs of these Portuguese carpets but their existence does raise important questions about whether all of the surviving carpets currently considered to be of Spanish origin were made exclusively in Spain, or also by the highly-regarded royal weavers of Lisbon. Indeed, some of the representations of carpets with Spanish parallels in Portuguese art may reflect local production.
The royal privileges extended to the Lisbon weavers gave them tax immunities as well as various protections for themselves and their employees, and the court treasurers were instructed to support them with their good offices. When King Afonso V (r. 1438-81) served an edict removing privileges from the Moorish community, the weavers complained and he agreed to reinstate their rights on 10 September 1454. This suggests that they were valuable contributors to the local economy, and that their products were highly regarded, something which is further implied, when, on 3 March 1471, King Afonso allowed the royal weaver, Mafamede Lobo, to have two apprentices in his workshop. The King established heavy fines for anyone who might seek to employ them elsewhere, and ordered that once the apprentices had learnt their trade, they should be replaced by two others.
King João II (r. 1481-1495) also favoured the Moorish weavers, probably also for economic reasons, and on 2 June 1492, precisely six months after the fall of Granada, he approved the continuation of the privileges previously granted to them by his predecessors. According to Jerome Münzer, the doctor and geographer of Nuremburg who visited the Iberian Peninsula, from August 1494 to April 1495, the merchandise assembled by the Portuguese for trade with Guiné included "wool cloths in a variety of colours [and] carpets from Tunis". In his De Inventione Genee he also noted that King João II had faithful copies of carpets brought from Tunis and Fez made in Portuguese workshops. This would certainly seem to imply the existence of vibrant industries on both sides of the Mediterranean, of considerable interest to the Portuguese king, as well as a demand for carpets in the long-distance trade with West Africa which may have stimulated his interest in the local industry.
In 1496 King Manuel I (r. 1495-1521) expelled the Muslims and Jews to fulfil the obligations of his marriage agreement to Isabel of Arágon and Castile (1470-1498), daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. The Mudejar workshops in Lisbon appear to have been abandoned shortly thereafter, although four carpet weavers (tecelães de tapetes) still worked in the city in 1551. It is possible that they were Christian converts who continued their craft well into the sixteenth century, but if this did indeed occur, the tradition of making knotted-pile carpets in Portugal died soon after, in contrast to the Spanish tradition which has continued up until today.
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. HOUSEGO, Jenny, "Literary references to carpets in North Africa", Oriental Carpet and Textile Studies, vol. 2, 1986, pp. 103-8. VITERBO, F. M. Sousa, Artes Industriais Portuguesas - A Tapeçaria, Coimbra, Imprensa da Universidade, 1902.
Autor: Jessica Hallett