Carpet with Geometricized Floral Design

This carpet is representative of the Caucasian weaving tradition with its geometricized motifs and overall design, red ground and other warm colors. The field is composed of repeating large-scale medallion-motifs formed with stylized palmettes, lotus and other flowers, combined with polygonal or star-like patterns. Stylized cypress trees on a stand against a white ground are repeated in the narrow border. A few flowers with rounded leaves on the star-like medallions are remnants of Persian influence and soften the geometrized composition. This powerful design is especially striking on a carpet of this large size and was preferred by commercial workshops, where such carpets with their low knot-count were produced in large quantities for trade. Rugs from the broad Transcaucasian region are woven in diverse centers representing a multi-ethnic society in which Armenians, Turkic, Kurdish, Persianate and other people lived alongside each other. While this diverse society may complicate the attribution to an exact workshop and its cultural identity, it may help to explain the development of a rich and colorful designs that distinguish these Transcaucasian rugs. Although compositions often echo traditions that developed in large workshops between Iran and Turkey, as well as tribal weaving traditions, such rugs bear distinctive features that are regarded as artistic hallmarks of the vast and diverse Transcaucasian region.