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Persian Carpet
Introduction of
Iranian Carpet Museum
The Iranian Carpet Museum is a national
treasure, full of exquisite and antique examples of carpet weaving.
There are carpets from the Savafid, Qajar and contemporary eras. The
museum presently has a collection of over one thousand antique
carpets and kilims. Seven hundred of these are unique in the world.
The collection has representatives from all the carpet weaving
styles and cities. Two temporary exhibitions are usually held every
year at the museum. These exhibitions occur on International Museum
Day, that is May eighteenth, and also on February twenty-second,
concurrent with the celebration of the victory of the Islamic
Revolution.
Thousands of people, including students,
researchers, those interested in Iranian art and culture as well as
tourists from the four corners of the world come to visit this
museum every year.
//Poland’s carpet and ( ) //are among the
unique carpets for exhibited at this museum. // ( )// carpet belongs
to the sixteenth century of the common era. It was woven during the
Safavid era. It’s pattern is medallion spandrel. Hunting images
and miniature figures make up the field. It is twenty-five square
meters with a knot count of forty in seven centimeters square.
Presently, there are seven //Poland's carpets// in the museum's
collection. These carpets were commissioned by a Polish prince named
Sigmond. They were woven in Isfahan and Kashan, using gold threads.
The warping of these carpets uses three tight and loose wefts.
The museum has varied functions; it does
not act only as a repository. Among the important sections is the
repair department. The training department of the Carpet Museum is
also quite active, providing educational services by offering
classes in weaving, darning and carpet design.
Four Seasons
It is a common practice in carpet design to
divide the main area into four equal parts. The situation is quite
different in this carpet. In every one of the four sections of this
carpet, the four seasons of the year have been depicted. They rotate
in a clock wise direction. The carpet is three meters by two meters
twenty. It has an asymmetric knot count of sixty. The carpet was
woven in the city of Tabriz about forty years ago. It employs a wide
range of techniques that definitely makes it worth our while to
review. The carpet medallion has an oval shape. Darius, the
Achaeminan King, leans against the throne. Two companions are
offering protection from the sun. An image of Farvahar has been
woven near the king. Around the medallion twelve constellations are
woven, each in an oval frame.
The statements "Four Seasons" and
"Planet Earth" have been woven inside the frames and on
the two ends of the shorter diameter of the ellipse. There are
images of prophets woven inside some frames at the spandrel in the
four corners of the carpet. Images such as Moses on Mount Sinai,
Jesus as a shepherd , both Abraham and Ismail as well as Adam and
Eve. Images of renowned Iranian personalities, such as Abolghasem
Ferdowsi, BaBa Taher Orian, Saadi, Quani and Hafez have been woven
into the right and left borders of the carpet. Four historic places
have been shown in this carpet: Perspolis in the spring, the
Sultanieh of Zanjan in the summer, the porch of Madeeon, in the fall
season and the Kabud Mosque in winter. The constellations of the
months of each season are next to them. In the image of the winter
season, the faded wintry shadows attracts ones attention.
Pazyryk
carpet
In the summer of nineteen forty-nine, the
Russian archeologist Sergio Rudenko was in a valley six miles from
the border of Mongolia.
He made an astounding discovery: a carpet
dating back to the fifth century before the common era. The carpet
was in Pazyryk of the Altai Mountains in an avalanche. It was in
perfect condition! It had been preserved in a thick sheet of ice
which had protected it for twenty-five centuries. With this
magnificent carpet coming to light, a most important piece of
evidence in the history of oriental carpets became available to us.
In the investigation carried out by Rudenko
on the Pazyryk carpet, his attention was attracted to the undeniable
influence of ancient Persia on some of the patterns.
The political influence of the Achaemenian
dynasty may be greater than might have been previously estimated. At
the beginning if this dynasty, it was influentuial merely in the
south and east of Iran. When its influence spread, the regions of
central Asia came under Persian domination in in the forth century
before the common era.
This is the theory, because this date
corresponds with the era of the Pazyryk carpet. Rudenko made a close
study of the patterns which appear to be so close to those of the
Achaemenian civilization.
The line of horses and their riders which
appear on the carpet’s borders are similar to the horses and their
riders appearing on the carved stone blocks of Persopolis. The
Persopolis scene shows that the activity was a stately procession.
None of the riders in the Persoplois carvings are mounted, while on
the Pazyruk carpet, every other rider is mounted. This shows that
the riders are active, playing a game, for example.
The central field of the restored Pazyruk
carpet is divided into twenty-four squares, each decorated with an
eight-pointed star. This pattern resembles the four-pointed star of
the Assyrian era.
The guard between the horsemen and the elk
are decorated with cross-like figures. The squares of the field are
also decorated with a similar motif. On the principal band of the
interior, there is a line of six elk on each side. The two inner and
outer guards are decorated with a succession of small squares
containing imaginary creatures, probably griffins. The original
colours used for this carpet can not be precisely known, as they
have just about faded away. The work of the Pazyruk carpet compares
favorably with that of the best of modern weaving. Rudenko maintains
throughout his investigations that this carpet is of Persian origin,
although it was found very far from the borders of the ancient
Achaemenian dynasty.
A sample of the Pazyryk carpet was woven on
the order of the Carpet Museum of Iran. In this carpet, symytrical
knots of silk, colored white, light green, black, creme, orange and
madder are used.
The size of this reproduction is two
hundred eleven centimeters by one hundred eighty centimeters with a
knot count of fifty.
The Persepolis Carpet
Persepolis ,
this twenty-five hundred year-old court of silent stone! What does
it convey that it manages to attract thousands of tourists from all
over the world every year? The power and magnificence these ruins
hint of has inspired many works of art. The Persepolis carpet is one
of these works. It measures six and three-quarters meters by four
and a-half meters.
The design of this carpet is actually a
series of the images of various areas of Persapolis.
The inscription on the right border of the
carpet reveals that the weaving was ordered by Mr. Assadollah Khan,
the Deputy Governor of the Fars province. This carpet, with a knot
count of sixty, was woven in Kerman using assymetric knot and three
wefts.
The upper and lower borders are similar
whereas the left and right vertical borders are of different
patterns. On the main field, one third from the top, one can see the
forword movement of the people toward the Acheamnian king. Some
people are going toward the king’s court, either on foot, or
riding on horseback or in a wagon.
On
the eastern stairway to the Apadana Palace in Persepolis,
there is a combat scene of a bull and an elk. This carpet has the
same scene inside a triangular frame. Two rows of soldiers can be
seen.
The central part of the carpet has been
decorated with the pictorial design of the Acheamenian King, with a
row of lions above right, and on the upper part, the image of a
divine being, namely "FARVAHAR".
This carpet is tantamont to the identity
sheet of Persepolis. The carved patterns on the stone walls and
pillars of Persepolis are clear here.
Some images of its memorable places -
buildings, gatways and edifices, especially the one hundred pillar
palace - are among the patterns woven next to each other in this
carpet.
In the upper left of the carpet, the "Farvahar"
can be seen with two companions. There is also the inscription:
"Darius, the Great King, has constructed this building."
In a lower section of the carpet, the
alphabet of the cuneiform script, which was the prevalent script
during the Acheamenian era, has been woven. The Persian equivalent
is placed nearby.
The borders are decorated with historic
events such as combat scenes as well as the portraits of kings. The
Persepolis Carpet was purchased in nineteen seventy-seven and made
part of the collection of the Carpet Museum of Iran.
Zodiac carpet
Zodiac
is name of this carpet. The coloring used in this design, in
addition to its astrological details, creates an eye-soothing work.
This carpet was woven in the early nineteenth century in Mohammad
Taghi Banki’s workshop in Isfahan. The corner medallions take up a
great portion of the carpet themselves. The carpet theme is a floral
design, mainly in the form of interlaced flowering branches on a gay
red background. In the four corner medallions of the carpet, four
human figures are woven alongside the names of the four planets of
Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Hermes. Every one of these are placed an
equal distance from the Earth.
The carpet’s circular medallion is
connected to two other medallions. The upper medallion is the very
popular Iranian traditional symbol - that is, the lady sun.
The lower medallion is comprised of a
crescent and an eight-pointed star.
The medallion has been divided into twelve
parts, as the year is divided. The names of these constellations are
the Ram, Taurus, Gemini, Leo, Virgo, Libra, the Scorpion,
Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. In the center of the
medallion there is a twelve petalled lotus which symbolizes love and
wisdom in Eastern mysticism. Inside the medallion has been decorated
with the names of constellations in Turkish, Persian and the Arabic
languages. This carpet has seven borders, the main one being called
"arm band" Its background is red. Narrow borders of dark
blue and creme colors have been used.
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