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Ottoman rugs
After the ottoman dynasty established their government between 15th and 16th century, new innovations were performed fast in scheme domain: decorative designs with animal pictures were eradicated and geometric designs were replaced instead, which are called often for European artists dealing with these designs in their paintings. The continuation of used designs in late Seljuk directs us widely to 2 groups: a group called Hollbein and another called Lotto. The so called Hans Hollebein rugs are designed by consecutive schemes on the background, which has various shapes and often is accounted for advanced and evolved Memlings.
This design existed early before 15th century and a rug which is now kept in Mevlana museum in Konia, and which was obtain of Eshrefoglu mosque in Beyshehir, affirms it. Hollbein classic designs (so called type 1) is well illustrated in a painting of an unknown artist in 1604. The title of this painting is ” conference in Somerset’s house” (national portrait gallery, London), in which a couple of groups from Spain and England are faced together on a beautiful rug. The horizontal medallion rows which have octagon stars, are set periodically in horizontal rows of angular palmette designs. The margins are long and complicated and inspired yet from Kufi handwritings, even though they are simpler than any rugs found in Beyshehir of Konia.
It seems that the Hollbein rug production was increased frequently after ottoman governing, and these rugs were so much common in western countries and considered to be priceless one. Painters used to paint Hollbein rugs under the feet or under the throne of the kings. In a limit range of two centuries, it undergoes a gradual progress: the margin designs and decoration changes, and fancy tissues inspired of Kufi schemes turn into simple and periodic geometric decoration.
Still we observe an shift in choosing the colors that creeps to red, while before this, one used to use green, blue and azure spectrum. According to the used designs, the medallions get bigger and in tandem schemes in background decrease.
Another simple design which is known as Holbein (type 3) include rugs that made of a big dimension octagon/ foursquare medallion vertical row such as ones in Ming and Marby rugs decorated by animal pictures.
Such a rug is well observed in many painting and the most famous one maybe is ” Gli ambasciatori jean de dinteville e Goerges de selve”, which is painted in 1533 and kept in London museum. In he painting of two character, the ambassadors lay on a table which is covered of a rug. You can regard this painting from 3 points: on superior part, on the table, there are astronomy tools to watch the sky. Under the table you can see some musical instrument. From the left view, you can see a skeleton on the floor, whose superior part of the body is separated by a diaphragm from inferior part of the which is the symbol of the life and the third one include feet which are the symbol of the life after death.
Often in the apexes of the octagon, there are small medallion which is observed based on a great deal of 19th century production in Bergama area (Holbein type 4). The rug which is known as the type 2 of Holbein called Lotto is more famous, that is called for Lorenzo Lotto, the venetian artist who lived about 1480-1556 and used to reuse similar rugs in his paintings.
The complex decorative design called Ushak was common in 16th century and used to be current till 17th century and continued to be used with some slight changes until early 18th century. The evolution and progress of this design is not only because of the present painting but because of the many samples that are preserved in museums and collections or exist in fancy European houses.
In Lotto rugs, the routine medallion and palmette of Holbein sort lose their complication and discipline and turn into a golden web which is distinct on a red background. In the older samples, the long margins existed accompanying Kufi designs and complex tissues in which the background composition is so much harmonic. The samples belonging to 17th century, have more harmonic compositions and small dimensions. The whole design has a decorative form which is weaved symmetrically on the background, while you can see the use of other design in the margins instead of conventional Kufi designs, which are often observed as Omega- like ( Ʊ ) shapes attached to medallions or some geometric epigraph.
Along with these prevailing products throughout the Anatolia’s western part, during the 16th century, in Usak workshops, new samples were woven which their designs were based on a medallion and were extremely influenced by Iran because during that time, medallion has been used in Iran.
To weave Usak rugs, which soon came to the west through the Venetian merchant ships, a pre-designed plan was needed: The 16th and 17th centuries are a brilliant period in the Turkish carpet weaving, in which a lot of innovations were made and rugs were woven with curve designs and in large numbers. The various decorative patterns in famous samples allow us to indicate the characteristics of Usak rugs at that time. Among these models the most common design is perhaps the medallion: These rugs which were usually long, had a ground full of oval shaped medallion that were placed on a longitudinal axis. Alongside them and alternately, there were small circular medallions with two pendants in form of tip of an arrow and were usually woven in half, near the borders. The background is usually red and decorated with delicate blossom shades of blue. The medallions are in dark blue and their edges are dentate and have a dense texture. The designs goes on continuously until they get cut off randomly by the borders and it’s basically different from the other Iranian rugs which were woven in the same era because in those Iranian rugs the design was symmetrical and on an axis.
Usak rugs woven in the late 18th century had significant dimensions, the length of which reached 10 meters and had medallions, later samples were simpler and their dimensions were smaller and occasionally had only one medallion. In the west, they value Usak rugs with medallion a lot and they were exported to the Netherlands in large numbers. The flamingo painters painted these rugs in aristocratic or bourgeois houses which were used as a table cloth. But much more famous picture may be the drawing which have been drawn from Henri the Eight. The second group of Usak rugs, known as Starred Usak rugs , were woven in the 17th century. The lengths were long, and the ground was decorated with a few octagonal stars in vertical consecutive rows and there were cross—shaped designs in distances as well. The ground was red and the stars were blue and they shone with some decoration. In some English collections, there are examples of Starred Usak of the year 1580, on which the badges of the English aristocratic families are woven.
Many Usak rugs offer special prayer designs and geometrical designs on the ground. Although there were example of woven pray rugs from the Seljuk period in Anatolia, Usak rugs became so popular in 16th century. Common examples of Usak rugs in the 19th century are angular and with twisted branches on the sides , and in some of them large masses of clouds is seen on the ground. The color spectrum used in these rugs is affected by the glow of the red color, which is in contrast to the blue color, for medallion and borders golden yellow has been used.
Finally, between the 16th and 17th century Usak rugs, there were numerous rugs featuring geometric designs that occupy the whole surface of the ground which were bright and made of wool, and they were sometimes called Selendi. The most famous of them is known as Bird, because among the used design on the ground, one can see the very simplistic image of the birds.