The Ardabil Carpet

The Ardabil carpet (also Ardebil carpet, persian قالی اردبیل, DMG Qali -ye Ardabīl ) is a famous Iranian Persian rug dating from the 16th century, while the oldest is provided with a specific year of manufacture carpet in the world. It was made in two copies, which have very different states of preservation. You are in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V & A) in London or the Los Angeles County Museum of Art ( LACMA ) in Los Angeles.

History

Commissioned had the two carpets of Safawidenherrscher, Shah Tahmasp I ( 1524-1576 ). He wanted to dedicate the shrine of his ancestors, the Sheik Safi d -Din Ardabili, in Ardabil. The carpets were 1539-40 ( Ardabil - London ) and shortly thereafter at an unknown date completed ( Ardabil - Los Angeles ). Older dated carpets are not known.

The more famous of the " Ardabil rugs " is well received in London. Its name comes from the city of Ardabil in the homonymous province in northern Iran on the Caspian Sea. Here he was kept until its sale in 1890 in the mosque. The sale was necessary because funds had to be distended in order to renovate the mosque can. The vault of the oratory had collapsed and had to be recovered consuming. The second Ardabil carpet was sold. At the time of the sale of carpets were both badly damaged and in need of repair accordingly. The settlement of the transaction was for negotiators of the Anglo- Persian manufactory Ziegler from Manchester. A British carpet dealers of the company Vincent J. Robinson & Co. bought both on, had it repaired one and took the other himself by one he sold them later at the museum in London ( the repaired carpet) and to a private collector on. The price was for that time in the outrageous sum of £ 2,500, for which a buyer consortium was founded. In England, the new acquisition was called " holy carpet ". The second of the two magnificent carpets, which now is located in Los Angeles, has become increasingly damaged over its long history and is preserved only partially today.

Both rugs were not made ​​in Ardabil, but were in the Knüpfmanufakturen Kaschans ( Esfahan province ) designed. They were made ​​by relatively secured level of knowledge among professionals in Tabriz.

The "holy carpet " in London

The typical for the region of Kashan, very finely knotted flooring measures 11.52 meters at 5.34 and has a node density of over 520,000 knots per square meter. Overall, the carpet over 61.5 m² includes over 26 million nodes. The pattern of the carpet is exceptionally dense and ornamenthaltig and lies on indigo blue scratch. The backing consists in weft and warp of silk, on the other hand, the pile of wool. The overall composition suggested by many observer 's view, the " illusion of a firmament, studded by stars ( in the form of glass mosque lamps), which are reflected in a water bath, which is itself full of floating blossoms of the lotus flower ."

The carpet has inscriptions. One hand, this couplets are from a ghazal ( a song form that originated in the 8th century in South Asia between India and Persia ) of the Persian poet Hafez. The decorative frame is located in a rectangular white box at the top of the carpet woven with the date of manufacture, the Islamic year 947 ( equal to 1540 /41). In addition, there is the name of the Knüpfmeisters, " Maqsud al - Kashani ".

The medallion carpet shows countless " mosque - lights " - vase and goblet-shaped vessels - hanging from the ceiling to illuminate the mosque. The medallion itself is kept and filled with unrolling itself tendrils that are out seeking out strong branches and intertwined with magnificently curved cloud bands who seek the blue field of the center yellow. At the blade tips hang sixteen jewelry elements ( ogees ), which are aligned in a star shape. Located on the major axis of the elements have a green background. Others have a red or white background.

The overall ensemble around the medallion flanked by two different sized red lamp motifs, which are filled with floral structures. These are suspended from the four links of the ogees the main axis. Today, experts recognize the different size of lamp designs a manufacturer's stylistic intent: If the viewing angle of the carpet taken from the smaller lamp motif side, both act the same size. In the spandrels of the carpet cuttings plunge of the medallion again, but without a hint of a lamp motif. The indigo blue main field of the carpet is filled with floral motifs and has a high design complexity.

The Scalloped edges are left and right of the main axis of the carpet oddly unbalanced. Red decorative frame and green multi -pass designs change in continuous order, but at different heights of the carpet in the left and right over the border from. In the outer band of the border, the palmettes have, despite uniform, reciprocal course to different concepts.

The British craftsman William Morris was the purchase of the carpet for the Victoria and Albert Museum with an appraisal help ( Inv. No. 272 of 1893 ). By 2006 the London carpet hung at the Victoria and Albert Museum in a permanent exhibition and has since been held in a glass pavilion in the middle of the main gallery of Islamic art. For conservation reasons, the light is kept scarce.

The carpet in Los Angeles

The English- language use like as "secret carpet" reputierte twin of the " Sacred Carpet " is narrower and hence smaller. Today he has no borders, it lacks even whole parts of the carpet. He is partly reconstructed and was partly bolstered by fragments from time to time auftauch (t ) s. Other fragments were special show pieces of various museums. Examples are the Rietberg Museum in Zurich -Enge, the Burrell Collection in Glasgow or the carpet house " Carl Zopf " in Stuttgart. Supposedly the number of nodes of this work of art even that of the " Sacred Carpet " exceed.

The carpet went to its sale in 1890 in the long aftermath through the hands of many wealthy businessmen. These included financiers like Clarence Mackay, Charles Tyson Yerkes and the " De la Mare art collections", finally the carpet at an exhibition in London in 1931 was shown to the world. This was preceded by exhibitions in the 1920s in American cities such as St. Louis, Chicago and 1930 in Detroit. The American industrialist Jean Paul Getty saw the carpet in the exhibition and bought him a few years later by Joseph Duveen for $ 70,000. An offer of the Egyptian King Farouk to purchase the carpet for $ 250,000, he struck out. Faruq was a wedding present for his sister marriage with Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Persia, later (from 1941 ), purchase the collector's item. Getty gave the carpet in 1953 the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Imitations

The two carpets are the most important created in Iran Persian rugs. Thus it was inevitable that they were almost endlessly copied in all variants of carpet weaving. A so-called ' Ardabil ' adorns example, the residence of the Prime Minister rooms of the United Kingdom in the 10 Downing Street. Adolf Hitler had an ' Ardabil ' in his Berlin office.