The Emperor's Carpet

Object Name:
Carpet
Date:
second half 16th century
Geography:
Iran
Medium:
Silk (warp and weft), wool (pile); asymmetrically knotted pile
Dimensions:
Rug: L. 299 in. (759.5 cm) W. 133 1/2 in. (339.1 cm) Wt. on a 10" tube: 144 lbs. (65.3 kg)
Classification:
Textiles
Credit Line:
Rogers Fund, 1943
Accession Number:
43.121.1
  • Description

    One of the finest products of the Safavid court ateliers, this carpet once adorned the summer residence of the Habsburg emperors. The main field balances a sophisticated net of floral scrolls, large composite palmettes, cloud bands, buds, and blossoms with a myriad of real and fictional animals—dragons and Chinese antelope, lion and buffalo, tigers and leopards, ducks and pheasants. A verse found in the inner guard band likens a garden in springtime to the Garden of Paradise.

  • Provenance

    Czar Peter the Great, Russia (by tradition, until 1698); Austrian Imperial House, Vienna (1698–1921); Vienna Museum für Kunst und Industrie(1921–25); [ Cardinal and Harford, London, 1925–28; sale, Christie, Manson & Wood, London, July 5, 1928, no. 146]; [ International Art Gallery, London, 1928, sold to Arthur U. Pope forRockefeller McCormick]; Edith Rockefeller McCormick, Chicago (1928–d. 1932; her estate until 1943;sold to Arthur U. Pope for MMA)

  • See also
    What
    Where
    When
    In the Museum
    Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
    MetPublications
140007803:2

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