The Metropolitan Museum of Art - 'Lotto' Carpet

'Lotto' Carpet

Images (18)

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'Lotto' Carpet

Object Name:: Carpet
Date:: 16th century
Geography:: Turkey
Culture:: Islamic
Medium:: Wool (warp, weft and pile); symmetrically knotted pile
Dimensions:: Rug: L. 85 1/2 in. (217.2 cm) W. 51 1/4 in. (130.2 cm) Wt. 19 lbs. (8.6 kg) with cradle
Classification:: Textiles-Rugs
Credit Line:: Rogers Fund, 1908
Accession Number:: 08.167.1

This artwork is not on display

Description

Carpets displaying this striking design of stylized vegetal arabesques in yellow on a red ground are often called "Lotto" carpets after a famous altarpiece by Italian Renaissance painter Lorenzo Lotto that depicts a similar carpet. Early examples of Lotto carpets exhibit borders like the one seen here. Thought to derive from a rectilinear form of Arabic script known as kufic, this type of interlaced border is characteristic of many early Turkish carpets.
Provenance

[ Dikran G. Kelekian, New York, until 1908; sold to MMA]
See also
What
Textiles (33,065)

Wool (9,976)

Rugs (711)

Carpets (420)
Where
Asia (68,540)

Turkey (1,694)
When
A.D. 1400-1600 (22,117)
In the Museum
Islamic Art (12,574)
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
Islamic Carpets in European Paintings

Balkan Peninsula, 1400–1600 A.D.

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