Tuesday, April 12, 2011

An Old Animal Carpet Design and Its Origin



It is very difficult to find the oldest animal design carpet in the world and even if such a carpet exists, finding its date would not be an easy task. What might be easier and more feasible is finding paintings with animal design carpets in them. At least we may hope that these paintings can be dated and the artists can be identified.

I did an extensive research on this topic and reached very interesting findings. An early Italian Renaissance painter of the 15th century named Domenico di Bartolo also called Domenico Veneziano, born 1410 and died in 1461, did the first painting shown on top here. This painting "The Marriage of the Foundlings" features a large carpet with a Chinese-inspired phoenix-and-dragon pattern. Since it is not possible to find the exact carpet shown in this painting, we have to refer to a later carpet a Phoenix-and-dragon carpet, made in the first half or middle of the 15th century with the same design.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085
Posted by Rug Ideas Dr. Kay Sobhe (Los Angeles) at 10:27 PM
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1 comment:

  1. RV Backup CameraNovember 17, 2011 at 3:21 PM

    That painting is amazing, and it's so interesting that you can see the design on the carpet so clearly. I think I remember learning about Domenico di Bartolo in Art History class. That would make sense that the carpet was Chinese-inspired, because wasn't that a large part of trade with the Chinese? Silk and carpets and such?

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