Escape to Persia

The Oriental Carpet

Exhibition Le Tapis d'Orient at the Nuits d'Orient festival in Dijon, Nov-Dec 2017, initiated by Marie-Chantal Frère-Sautot.
Texts by Marie-Chantal Frère-Sautot (MC-FS) or Teorg Maelbergs (TM).

TO THE ORIGINS OF CARPET (MC-FS)

The oldest known carpet probably dates back to the 5th century B.C. Discovered in the permafrost of the Altai in a burial mound in Pazyryk, it owes its conservation to frost. It is large (200 x 183 cm) and accompanied the remains of a Scythian dignitary along with many other objects. It has a double decoration around the perimeter, a frieze of large stags and a frieze of horsemen: it therefore includes the theme of hunting, which can have a "psychopompe" character (which leads the souls of the deceased). It is exhibited in the Hermitage Museum.

Without doubt the art of the carpet was born in Central Asia.

The carpet of king Sassanid, a dynasty that reigned over Iran and its margins, from the third to the seventh century, in Ctesiphon (Iraq) was famous for having been woven with gold and silver threads and decorated with precious stones, it would have been shared between the assailants during the Arab conquest.

For later periods, only fragments have survived. It is only from the productions of the 16th century that we have complete pieces.

The woollen Chelsea carpet can be manufactured in Tabriz in the north of Iran presents an assembly of floral and animal patterns.
The Wiener Jagdteppich of the same period perhaps originating from Kashan in Iran is considered as one of the first court carpets and represents one of the favorite pastimes of the dignitaries: hunting.