The second great period for Turkish carpets following that of the Selquk era began in the 16th century in Uşak and its surroundings. This most famous and largest group of carpets, although frequently painted by European artists and highly esteemed in Europe until the end of the 18th century, was recognized merely as Turkish carpets in inventory records. The name Uşak for these carpets is a relatively new classification. İn the local sources the Uşak carpets have been identified as such since the 17th century.
A number of references attest to this. For example, in 1633 Evliya Qelebi related that there were 111 carpet merchants in the guild of İstanbul and mentioned the forty shops where carpets from İzmir, Thessaloniki, Cairo, Isfahan, Uşak and Kava la were sold. İn 1674, the name of an Uşak carpet is listed in the inventory of the Yeni Valide Mosque, İstanbul (Evliya Qelebi). The Hırka-i Saadet department of the Topkapı Palace, where the mantle of the Prophet Muhammad is kept as a relic was also covered with Uşak carpets in 1726. Another reference is to an order that was made to Uşak for carpets for the opening of the Laleli Mosque, İstanbul, in 1763. And again, Ahmet Refik describes the Uşak region together with the town it self in the late 17th and 18th centuries (H 12th century) stating that the pattems for their carpets were provided from İstanbul.
İt has been generally accepted that the first two types of the group known as the Holbein type carpets are regarded as the original Uşak carpets. İn these, geometric designs are replaced by floral motifs and medallions formed of plant designs. These two types have been classified as the Medallion Uşak and the Star Uşak. İt is uncertain which predates the other. Although some scholars tend to place the Star Uşak carpets at an earlier date, it is quite impossible with the data available today to determine a specific and authentic date. If we take into account the date that their representations in European paintings occurred, then we must assign them to the first half of the 16th century. The medallion motif we know was used for the first time in Turkish carpets in this same century.
The medallion entered the art of carpet making from the bindings and the gilded pages of illuminated manuscripts, in other words from the art of the book İt has played an important part also in the Tabriz carpets of the 16th century. The conquest of Tabriz by the Turks in 1514 marks the beginning of the use of medallions in Turkish carpets. The wealth in diversity of the medallion types in Uşak carpets represents the supreme power and the creative force of the Turkish artists.
İn the carpets of Tabriz, Kashan, and Isfahan, the center of the carpet is decorated with a large medallion as the main motif and the corners are emphasized by quarter medallions. Following the conventions of miniature art, the medallions and the field are filled with floral designs and with compositions consisting of both human and animal figures. Thus the development of the Persian carpet was hindered because the artists who designed the carpets were the same as the miniaturists and they directly applied miniature design to the technique of textiles.
Medallion Uşak Carpets
İn the case of Uşak carpets we find that the later examples of the 16th and 17th centuries show a natural, continuous development in the changing art and technique of textiles. The Uşak medallion carpets, generally accepted as the more important of the two types, exhibit a further development during the course of the 18th century, that of reaching a length of nearly 10 meters. İn these long carpets the overall composition gives the idea of an endless continuum with a circular medallion on the main axis and a line of pointed lobed medallions on both sides of it. This makes them quite different from the Persian carpets where the composition is closed within definite borders. İn this schematic use, the medallions only differ in shape by being either oval or circular, and the alignment remains constant even when the field varies in size.
The best quality medallion Uşak carpets which were produced in quantity until the middle of the 18th century are the on es with yellow floral designs on a dark blue ground and with rich red and blue medallions. The on es with a red background always have dark blue medallions and are of higher quality. They are usually made of wool, but sometimes cotton is also used. Deep red, dark blue and yellow are the predominate colors; green and blue appear as secondary colors and black is used on the contours. Amazingly magnificent decorations were achieved by using these three primary and two supplementary colors.
These carpets attained their classical form in a very short time so that, beginning with the 16th century, the Uşak medallion carpets were being directly exported to Europe. Paintings of them in this period demonstrate this. For example, in a family portrait copied during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in 1570, a medallion Uşak carpet is depicted under the feet of the English King Henry VIII.
İn the Flemish interior paintings of the 17th century we also have some extremely accurate representations of medallion Uşak carpets which were used as table covers. We can also cite, among many others, paintings by Vermeer in Buckingham Palace and the Gallery of Dresden and by Terborch in the National Gallery, London. The medallion Uşak carpets, one bearing the Polish Wlesiolowski coat of arms (at present in the Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin), and one in Wavel, Krakow are clear evidence to support the contention that these carpets were made both on order and also were sold commercially in Europe.
İn the 17th century various types of the medallion carpets appear. One of them strongly emphasizes an infinite pattern with eight lobed medallions placed on various axes. An older example of this in the Berlin Museum was destroyed d u ring the last war but other examples have been found.
İn the last half of the 18th century very different patterns of the Uşak carpets with medallions were still being depicted in European paintings. The Swiss painter Liotard (1702-1789) in his painting “The Portrait of the Countess of Conventry” has depicted an Uşak carpet with medallions, the origin of which is unknown. The light brown medallion is on a dark blue ground and above and below it are lotus forms. The medallion is framed by palmettes on either side. Here the medallion almost occupies the whole width of the carpet with only a short distance to the border.
İn the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, İstanbul, and in the Mevlana Museum, Konya, there are a large variety of exquisite and valuable examples of Medallion Uşak carpets, some of which are whole and some fragmented. İn the Kuwait National Museum, a museum founded recently by the Emir of Kuwait, there is an example (3.25×7.23 m) of a very fine Medallion Uşak carpet. Also in this museum are a sewn together small Type I Holbein carpet (1.4×2.87 m) and a Star Uşak carpet.
Star Uşak Carpets
These carpets of which we now have few original specimens, constitute a smaller group. İn this type, eight pointed stars alternate regularly with diamond shaped medallions in offset rows. These carpets were of medium size, very few examples in hand being more than four meters in length. They never postdate the 17th century. The field is always red with eight pointed stars and small star shaped lozenges in blue. İn this type of Uşak carpet the center of the carpet is never emphasized because of the profusion of lozenges. Occasionally medallions in red lie on a field of blue. The field is decorated with angular stems and multicolored floral designs with the medallions being filled with palmettes and twin rumis in red and yellow.
We can date the samples in this group with more certainty. Two carpets in a group of three Star Uşak carpets which bear the crest of the Montague family are dated inside the cartouches on the border. The dates are actually woven into the narrow edge of both these carpets, which are part of the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch. The third one of the same group has no date. The larger carpet, dated 1584, has alternate rows of three stars with two medallions and two stars with three medallions. The other one, dated 1585, is of smaller size and is decorated with rows of three diamond shaped medallions.
Since 1914 these examples were attributed to an English origin but in later years they were accepted as actual Turkish carpets by such authorities as Kühnel and Erdmann Dr. May Beattie, on the other hand has recently examined the technique and materials used in these carpets and claims that they were woven in England or Antwerp. İt is difficult to accept the probability that these magnificent Star Uşak carpets could have been produced at such an early date in England or Antwerp, centers which were devoid of any traditions in carpet making and weaving. This supposition having no sound foundation can only be explained by the fact that copies of Turkish carpets were woven in England at later dates. We have no evidence to prove that Turkish carpets were produced in England in the 16th century.
Authorities agree that these carpets were commissioned according to a desired technique and quality to be woven under the control of and on the looms of weavers in the Uşak region. The Roman numerals of the date 1584 in the field of the larger of the two dated carpets mentioned above were in error reversed in the weaving. This shows that the ones who did the weaving were unable to read it correctly.
The first classical depiction of the Star Uşak carpet in a painting was portrayed in the first half of the 76th century by Paris Bordone, in a painting dated 1533 which is now in the Accademia di Belle Arti, Venice. Another example is a magnificent Star Uşak carpet under the throne of the Doge in the painting entitled “A Fisherman Bringing the Ring of St Mark to the Doge”. However, these kinds of representations do not appear in England prior to the 17th century. To date, no miniatures have been found which show representations of Star Uşak carpets.
Although the Star Uşak carpet seems not to have been produced beyond the 17th century, its development had been perfected in a very short period of time and without ever showing any signs of decline before its sudden demse. We have about twenty or twenty-five carpets of this type dating from the 16th century. Their sizes a re not more than four meters in length. A small example, one in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, İstanbul, is noteworthy. İn its present condition it consists of only a central axis with half star medallions above and below and a complete one in the middle. Some other interesting examples of the same group from the 17th century are kept in the Vakıf Museum of the Sultanahmet Hünkâr Kasrı, İstanbul. Among these, a very severely damaged Uşak carpet is unusual with its red star medallions on a field of blue.
According to Donald King: “There is a clear relationship between this pattern and Persian designs such as that of the Ardabil carpet, with its floral ground and its arabesque filled medallions and ovals. Even though the Ardabil carpet, dated 1539, is slightly later than the first Star Uşak carpets, there can be no doubt that the latter were devised under Persian influence. This influence could well have arrived through peaceful channels, but it was quite probably reinforced by Ottoman occupation of parts of Persia, including the important carpet weaving center of Tabriz in 1514 and from 1533 on wards.
Although it may be difficult to establish a relationship between the Ardabil carpet and the Star Uşak carpets, it is possible to see such a relationship between it and the decorative tiles of the Gök Mescid in Tabriz. The reign of Timur in this area was followed by that of Türkmen rulers. İn H 870 (1465) the Karakoyunlu Türkmen ruler Muzaferiddin Cihanşah (1436-1467) had the Gök Mescid which he built decorated with tiles containing a continuous pattern of lozenges from the four sides of which extend palmettes, a design quite adaptable to carpets. İt reminds one of the filler designs on carpets, and certainly the influence on the Star Uşak carpets comes to mind. This is seen in the example shown.
The designs of the tiles of the Gök Mescid in Tabriz from the 16th century might have been a source for the development of the patterns of the Star Uşak carpets. The close affinity of the Türkmen with the art of the carpet is known. On the other hand there is another example that shows a close similarity between the Star Uşak carpets and an architectural decoration that comes from the same period.
During the recently completed restoration work of the Selimiye Mosque, Edirne, the ceiling above the windows was cleaned. Black pen designs originating from the same period (1575) came to light under the plaster. They show a close affinity with the patterns of the Star Uşak carpets. These motif s developed in various branches of Turkish art starting with the Karakoyunlu Türkmen. This has created an original richness of decoration with various forms of application depending on the place they were used or on the material.
Variations of Medallion and Star Uşak Carpets
One of the variations of the medallion Uşak carpets in the Museum of Art, Philadelphia, shows the medallions with two different endlessly repeated fillings arranged in offset rows. The composition clearly emphasizes this continuum. The oldest example of this type was in the Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin, but unfortunately it disappeared during the war. But recently up to twenty-five similar carpets have been discovered in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, İstanbul.
Another variant group is related to the Star Uşak carpets. İn these carpets four diagonal cartouches move out from the central octagonal section. The pattern consists of alternate and staggered rows of large and small stellate diamond shaped medallions and square cartouches. The most outstanding carpet of this type is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Other examples are to be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Vakıf Museum, İstanbul. İn a small carpet with a red ground in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, İstanbul, the central medallion is framed by a square from the corners of which large palmettes derive. The half diamonds above and below are typical of Uşak carpets. The shape of the star medallion and the geometric lines help to date this carpet to the 18th century.
A different group of carpets from the 17th century having characteristic borders with Chinese clouds and a field design of floral motifs and lozenges is also attributed to the Uşak region. A most distinctive example of this type was in the Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin, previously, but it was destroyed in the last war. A later sample is in the Kunstgewerbe Museum, Hamburg.
Starting in the 15th century Chinese cloud motifs began to appear especially on Uşak carpets. Two unique Uşak carpets consisting of a central composition made up of Chinese cloud motifs and dating to the 17th century are to be found in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, İstanbul. The first of these carpets has on a central field of red, eight pointed star medallions outlined in twisting Chinese cloud light and dark blue contours. These form large diamonds around the medallions. Yellow wavy branches and yellow hyacinth like flowers interweave between the diamonds in an endless pattern.
The second carpet has a buff field in which multi colored Chinese cloud motifs are arranged similar to those on Holbein carpets. The central composition is made up of alternating rows of diamonds and octagons in red, white, dark blue and green. A stylistic dragon figüre is formed around the gül motif by green white and red cloud motifs. This Uşak carpet with its characteristic intertwining border of curved stems and mixed rumi shows its Türkmen origin and its dating to the 1700s.
Among the different types of the Uşak carpets is an unusual piece from the 17th century which shows a pattern of red, blue and white circles set one above the other. İt resembles the Türkmen and the Yörük (nomad) carpets of the outlying area of Central and western Anatolia. The border of the carpet with twisted branches and double rumis is a typical Uşak. Two pieces with white fields are seen in the Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin, and in a collection in Switzerland. Another half-carpet that shows a pattern with blue palmettes on a red ground and white and yellow twisted rumis has survived. This carpet which can be dated to the beginning of the 18th century has an outer border reminiscent of the Kufic with cartouches forming a continuation of the Holbein type carpets. The inner border bears the characteristic Caucasian features.
Another carpet from the 18th century with red ground shows a very different pattern with the arrangement of the stylized motifs of the yellow trees in rows containing hooks on both sides with dark blue small palmette fillings between them. İt forms a pattern of a lozenge. On the trees are fillings of very fine scenes of stylized animal combat. This carpet that is dated to the end of the 18th century can be related to the Yörük carpets.
A related variant Uşak carpet of the 19th century is to be found in a private collection in Washington, D.C. This carpet was published by Walter Denny in 1979 in a Smithsonian Institution exhibition as a south-east Caucasian carpet (2.47×1.07 m). Except for its border, its similarity to the 16th century
Uşak carpets is obvious. Another Uşak carpet with red ground with floral motif s arranged in a lozenge pattern comes from the end of the 17th century.
Next to these developments of the late period two small carpets from the 16th century showother examples of the rich variety from the Uşak area. The first of them is in the form of a rectangle with a plain, dark blue ground. Its plan is original. The border is very different with red geometric, twisted branches and stylized flowers resembling a hyacinth on a yellow ground. Very Iittie has remained from the outer borders that contain flowers and leaves.
The second carpet shows the type of Uşak with double niches. İn its center is a large blue oval medallion on a red ground. İt is filled with rumis and palmettes. The corner fillings on a pink ground are decorated with stylized flowers. The border which contains large floral motif s and clouds has a black ground.
Uşak Carpets with a White Field
Two distinctive groups of carpets are attributed to the Uşak region because of their designs and the technigues of weaving. These are carpets with fields of white andsoft ivory and borders with Chinese cloud motifs and palmettes. They are better known as “Bird” and “Qintamani” (Chinoiserie) carpets and date back to the 16th and 17th centuries. The main design, that of two leaves facing each other, at first glance appears to be a motif reminiscent of birds, a misconception perpetuated in the name. Here we have a geometric composition, a contradiction for an Uşak carpet, but the designs are completely floral in character and are placed among rosettes and flowers.
Very significant examples of the “Bird” carpets are in the museums of Konya and İstanbul, but in addition they can be found in abundance in private collections and in other museums all over the world.
The third white ground carpet is small in size, and displays a pattern derived from that of the first Holbein type. The field is divided into squares, each filled with red rosettes, while the dark blue quarter diamonds in the corners form a total lozenge motif. The designs are connected to each other by slender stems. The typical border with its huge stylized clouds and braided motifs is enriched by the placement in the field of rosettes in between the clouds. This carpet can be dated to the end of the 17th century.
If we take our cue from European paintings, we must assume that these carpets first appeared in the first half of the 16th century and continued until the middle of the 17th. The following examples typify the extent of the variety and the dates of these depictions. Such a composition appears in a fresco painted on the ceiling of the Royal Palace in Munich by Peter Candid in 1587, although the details of the designs are not clearly stated. We can also find the names of carpets with a white ground in earlier dated inventories of Archduke Ferdinand of Tirol in 1571-72, of Emperor Maximilian II in 1578 and of Queen Elisabeth of France (and wife to Philippe II) in 1545-1568. A painting with a “Bird” carpet spread on a table, which is in the collection of Lazaro in Madrid and another one attributed to the Clouet School are both undated but they might be copies of older originals. Considering the shape of the helmet and armor in the picture, both could be dated to somewhere between 1560 and 1570. İn Berlin is an elegantly drawn picture depicting a sophisticated type of carpet which is notable because the year 1610 is woven into the carpet in a chronogram. A carpet similar to these is in Stockholm in the private collection of Lundgren. İt bears the coat of arms of Jan Andrzej Prochnicki, the Bishop of Lemberg (1614-1633) woven just in the middle of the carpet. İn the gallery of the Hermitage Museum, Leningrad, “Bird” carpets are depicted with extreme accuracy in the pictures painted by Alessandro Varotari around 1625. An inscribed date of 1646 appears on a small carpet in the Transylvanian church of Schassburg.
A smaller group than the white field Uşak carpets is that with spots and stripes reminiscent of leopard and tiger skins which is des-ignated as “Qintamani”. İn these a design of three leopard dots and two tiger stripes is repeated in blue, red and yellow throughout the field. İt is interesting to note that in the 16th and 17th centuries fabrics with the same design were used to make caftans for the Ottoman Sultans. Some of the “Qintamani” carpets were woven in tremendous sizes. Examples of these carpets can be found in the museums of Istanbul and Konya, in the Museo Bardini, Florence, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in the Philadelphia Museum and in various private collections.
The next two examples we will quite are all included in the collection in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, İstanbul. They show the variety and uniqueness of the Uşak carpet group. The first is a large carpet dating from the end of the 16th century. Here the field is red, the tiger stripe yellow and the leopard dots blue, and the border is extremely wide. The second carpet is a very long one and is dated to the 18th century. A blue hooked single tiger stripe is filled with red and yellow on a brown field; there are also three leopard dots in white with yellow and red centers. The tiger stripe almost resembles a bug with its four arms projecting from the top and bottom. The geometric wide yellow border is filled with stylized tulip, carnation, pomegranate and hyacinth flowers emerging from blue colored thick spiral stems. Very stylized small animal figures are placed in pairs on both ends of the long side. The natural brown wool of the field has been extremely worn by time.
A carpet with three leopard dots and double tiger stripes in red on a dark blue ground in the Vakıflar Carpet Museum, İstanbul, shows the continuation of this type in the 19th century. Only here the pattern of a skin is mixed with a central medallion which disturbs the harmony. The border with its geometric form points to a late period.
Without a doubt the Uşak carpets constitute the second brilliant period of the Anatolian carpet tradition, a period extending from the 16th to the end of the 18th century. As a group they started to degenerate and show signs of retrogression by the end of that period but nevertheless they did not disappear because very degenerate samples of some types have lasted until the present time.
Bergama Carpets
Geometric designs and highly stylized floral motifs used in accord with the lines of geometric patterns were common in the Bergama carpets that developed from Type III and Type IV of the Holbein carpets. One of the most prominent of these displays a pattern grouping where two or three squares of equal size, lined up one above the other, fiil the ground across the carpet. The squares contain central octagons, or sometimes hexagons, filled with triangles. A different type displays a grouping of small octagons around the mid octagon thus producing the main motif. Rectangular and square frames were not used in the beginning. Later stylized animal figures began to appear. Stars and square motifs were also used in these carpets. The Bergama carpets, of which the oldest examples date from the 16th century, have perpetuated many patıerns and Kufic borders of the Selquk carpets. From the earliest 16th century examples, it is obvious that Bergama carpets and prayer rugs have continued to carry the motifs and particular colors used on the Selquk carpets, namely buff, natural white, two different red, blue, brownish green and brown, and often with two shades of the same color side by side. This continues even today. The cerpets display both geometric and strong stylized plant motifs side by side, ones often echced appropriately in the borders. After the 19th century these motifs were of naturalistic flowers and leaves. The reappearance of small animal figures in the 18th century on the Bergama carpets attests also to their relationshif. to former animal-figured carpets.