Lot 132

AN ANTIQUE MOGHAN KAZAK RUG

The offered hand-knotted wool rug on wool warp is a wonderful proof of the connection between the world of high art painting and eastern carpets. Authentic carpets, especially from the Ottoman Empire, appear repeatedly in the paintings of the Old Masters, and to this day some Anatolian designs are named after famous masters (for example, the Italian Renaissance painter Lorenzo Lotto unwittingly lent his name to a carpet composition from Western Anatolia). Also, the great Dutch painter of the Middle Ages, the Flemish master Hans Memling (c. 1430-1494), painted religious scenes in his famous paintings and still lifes with oriental carpets, which were already deservedly admired in Europe at the time. The Ottoman carpets in Memling's paintings in 15. In the 15th century, a mysterious hook-like motif appears in the octagon, and the same motifs are still used on Turkish, Persian, Caucasian and Turkmen carpets today - in these diverse environments, it is probably a stylisation of the dragon, which appeared extensively in fashionable Chinese art, and dragon motifs were subsequently transmitted and copied in nomadic cultures, of which the old carpets in particular have survived. The design of the 'Moghan' carpet is decorated with 12 multicoloured 'Memling spheres' (octagons with dragons in which stars are placed as a symbol of good luck, plus a 'magic eye' inside the star, another influential symbol to protect good luck). The octagons are separated by a diamond motif, which is artfully divided into four triangles, which are considered to be a good luck charm that protects against bad luck and evil fate. This composition is charmingly surrounded by a so-called crab border in white, but the crab is only seemingly reminiscent of geometrized flowers connected by square tendrils. A breathtaking specimen that is a powerful representative of a category of antique Caucasian carpets sought after by collectors.