Turkey "Holbein" Carpets

The most common Turkish imports described in early sixteenth-century Portuguese sources have designs based on repeating patterns of large wheels (rodas) - the so-called 'large-pattern Holbein' type, named after the representation of one of these Turkish carpets by Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543) in his famous portrait of John de Dinteville and George de Selve, The Ambassadors, 1533 (National Gallery, London). The enormous significance given to the carpet in this painting which memorializes two powerful, influential and educated men, underlines the value and importance attributed to these imports. Their field patterns typically comprise from one to ten or more 'wheels', each comprising a large octagon inscribed in a square panel, with different types of interlaced decoration in the centre and filling the corners.

Portuguese taste for Turkish carpets closely parallels other parts of Europe at this time and Turkish 'large-pattern Holbeins' appear in the dowry of King Manuel I's daughter, Infanta D. Beatriz (1504-1538) who married Carlos III, Duke of Savoy, in 1522, as well as in the accounts of the new Portuguese queen, D. Catarina de Áustria (1507-1578), for the year 1528. The first depiction of one probably appears in a painting of the Annunciation by Frei Carlos, dated 1523 (Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon). Although the 'wheels' of the field are not visible, the white reciprocal heart border is found on Turkish carpets with this design as shown in the famous painting of the Mass of Saint Giles, c. 1500 (National Gallery, London).

The 'small-pattern Holbein' design is in no way related to the former and comprises a repeated pattern of alternating quatrefoils and octagonal medallions outlined with angular interlace. Hans Holbein the Younger represented one in his portrait of Goerg Gisz, a German merchant in London, 1532 (Staatliche Museen, Berlin), but this was not the earliest representation of the type, as John Mills noted, and it first appears in the much damaged fresco of 1451 by Piero della Francesca in S. Francesco, Rimini, and shortly after in Mantegna's Madonna and Child (1459) in the church of S. Zeno in Verona. One of these carpets appears in the dowry of Infanta D. Beatriz (1522) and another in the inventory of the 5th Duke of Bragança, D. Teodósio I (d. 1563). The latter described as being "full of many large blue and yellow wheels outlined in white" was worth six times the value attributed to Spanish carpets of similar dimensions, reinforcing the high price attributed to Turkish imports.

Representations of 'small-pattern Holbeins' occur 20 years after the large-pattern' variety, in Gregório Lopes's painting of the Presentation of the Head of St. John the Baptist, c. 1538-39 (Igreja de São João Baptista, Tomar) and Diogo Contreiras's Saint Bernard and Saint Benedict, c. 1540 (private collection). These dates are quite late in comparison to Italian art where 'Holbeins' are among the earliest Ottoman types depicted: both types begin appearing in the middle of the fifteenth century, with the number of the representations of the 'large-pattern' variety reaching their peak in the last quarter of the century, and of the 'small-pattern' one in the first-quarter of the sixteenth century. However, in Portuguese documents, Turkish 'large-pattern Holbeins' are not as common as Spanish 'wheel' carpets or the Turkish 'small-pattern' variety indicating that the former probably represent a first wave imports. The heyday of the Turkish carpet in Portugal seems to have begun sometime during the reign of King Manuel I and to have peaked after his death, in the second quarter of the sixteenth century, as observed in Portuguese paintings. The disparity with Italy can be explained by the availability of high quality Spanish and Portuguese carpets throughout the fifteenth century, as well as by economic factors, as only in the sixteenth century did the rising wealth and commercial connections resulting from the Portuguese Expansion encourage widespread interest in acquiring and displaying imported luxury domestic furnishings.

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, "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