Turkish Carpets and Rugs

After the 16th century, Turkish rugs either followed Persian designs—indeed, were possibly worked by immigrant Persians and Egyptians—or followed native traditions. The former, made on court looms, displayed lovely, exquisite cloud bands and feathery, tapering white leaves on grounds of pale rose relieved by blue and emerald green.

Turkish patterns embellished carpets designed for mosques or noble residences with rich, harmonious colours and broad, static patterns. They contrast with the lively, intricate Persian designs, in which primary, secondary, and tertiary patterns often interact with one another in subtle dissonances and resolutions.

Turkish styles are best illustrated by the carpets from Ushak in western Anatolia, in which central star medallions in gold, yellow, and dark blue lie on a field of rich red. So-called Holbein rugs, similar to Caucasian carpets, have polygons on a ground of deep red, dark green, or red and green; they often have green borders and conventionalized interlacing Kufic script. Such a carpet is depicted in a painting by the 16th-century German artist Hans Holbein the Younger—hence the name.

Similarly, a handsome carpet pattern of interlacing yellow arabesques on a ground of deep red appears so often in the paintings of the 16th-century Venetian artist Lorenzo Lotto that carpets bearing this motif are called Lotto carpets. Carpets with a muted deep red ground of wonderful intensity, patterned with small medallions, hail, perhaps, from Bergama.

In the 17th century they developed into a type known as Transylvanian, so called because so many of them, particularly prayer rugs, were found in Transylvanian churches. They are nonetheless purely Turkish, with rich, quiet colours and sturdy designs. The majority are dominated by a fine red, though a few have faded to the colour of old parchment.

In the 17th century, the “bird carpet,” or White Ushak, with conventionalized motifs suggesting birds, developed. Surviving examples are serenely beautiful, with fields of soft ivory and various discreet colours.

Eighteenth- and 19th-century “low school” rugs from Asia Minor continued the tradition of blending sober patterns and luxurious colours. Yuruk “low school” rugs, made by nomadic Anatolian peoples such as the Kurds, have attracted collectors with their wide range of rich colours and use of simple patterns, often geometric, organized in bold designs that frequently have a diagonal rather than a vertical emphasis. But the chief creations were prayer rugs, more plentiful among the Turks than among the other faithful.

Handsome pieces were woven in Anatolia at Melas, Konya, Ladik, and Kirsehir, Ladik's being the most brilliant, both in colour and pattern. The most famous Anatolian prayer rugs came from Ghiordes and Kula, mostly in the 18th and 19th centuries; and in the United States they became the first passion of the collector. Regions such as Smyrna produced a great number of utility carpets for the West.