THE INDEX: RETHINKING THE ORIENTAL CARPET IN EARLY RENAISSANCE PAINTINGS

Lauren Arnold 5LFFL,QVWLWXWHIRU&KLQHVH:HVWHUQ&XOWXUDO+LVWRU\ 8QLYHUVLW\RI6DQ)UDQFLVFR

ince the beginning of Carpet Studies as a discipline marker of worldly honor (since it was made by reli- S in mid-19th–century , specialists have gious rivals).2 FODLPHGWKDWHDVWHUQFDUSHWVɆIURPWKHLUÀUVWDSSHDU- Yet hundreds of paintings prominently feature the th–century ance in European paintings in the mid-13 oriental carpet within a deeply Christian setting, WR WKH SUHVHQW GD\ Ɇ PXVW EH XQGHUVWRRG DV OX[XU\ where it is always depicted squarely under the feet items of Muslim manufacture. This widely repeated of the Virgin and her saints. We western art histori- conventional wisdom, often called the School ans have been taught (and we continue to teach our of thought, was formulated when Victoria still ruled students) that every one of these Italian and Flem- the British Empire but unfortunately it has been rare- ish religious paintings contains layer upon layer of ly questioned since.1 Most modern carpet specialists iconographic meaning; that everything the painter in- continue to hew to the Muslim-origin theory of the cluded, from the indigo blue pigment for the Virgin’s founders of the Berlin School, by insisting that if the cloak (indicating her purity, and purchased at great FDUSHWZDVWRKDYHDQ\LFRQRJUDSKLFDOVLJQLÀFDQFHDW FRVWRIWHQVSHFLÀHGLQWKHFRQWUDFW WRWKHYDVHRIURV- all within a painterly Renaissance context, it was as a es or lilies depicted on the carpet in front of her, is sign of heavenly comfort (since were ex- imbued with deep theological meaning [Fig. 1]. Were pensive and available only to the wealthy), and as a the interpretation of the Berlin School to be right, the carpet then is the RQO\ item within a heavenly setting ZLWKRXW DQ\ &KULVWLDQ VLJQLÀFDQFH RU LFRQRJUDSKLF meaning. This hardly seems likely, and art historians specializing in the Renaissance have rarely addressed the problem. Most often we ignore the presence of the carpet altogether, leaving it to the scrutiny of a few carpet specialists interested in the development of classical Turkish patterns and motifs. I became involved with this problem while writing a book chapter on the Council of Florence of 1439, and its impact on the art of the early Renaissance period. This famous Council, attended by prominent Chris- WLDQVIURPWKHHQWLUHNQRZQZRUOGɆDPRQJWKHP/DW- in, Coptic, Jacobite, Maronite, Armenian, and Greek 2UWKRGR[ɆVRXJKWWRUHFRQFLOHWKHHDVWHUQDQGZHVW- ern branches of Christianity in the face of militant Ot-

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98 Copyright © 2014 Lauren Arnold 7KH6LON5RDG12 (2014): 98 – 105 Copyright © 2014 The Silkroad Foundation toman incursions into Asia Minor and the surround- decided to start fresh by compiling and researching a ing ancestral Christian lands.3 The delegates brought FDWDOoJXeUDLVonné, a visual database of all Renaissance with them rare sacred books written in Aramaic (the paintings that contained oriental carpets. This data- language of Christ), Greek, Armenian, Coptic, and base, called the Carpet Index, has been online since Syriac, many of which, given to the Pope, become the 2008.6 While still a work in progress, the Carpet Index core of the emerging Vatican Library (Grafton 1993, has grown to over 800 images related to oriental car- Introduction). The Council took place over many pets in Western art from around 1190 to 1800, with months and involved long theological discussions research essays, source material, and sets and collec- DQG YHU\ GLIÀFXOW FRPSURPLVHV :KHQ LW FRQFOXGHG tions of images. The research possibilities from this with a Decree of Union in July 1439, all of the bells in concentrated gathering of material are vast for orien- Florence rang out and the Council was thought to be a tal carpet enthusiasts. At the Index’s core is a work- triumphant success. able collection of about 350 paintings dated between 1250 and 1550. This core has allowed me to re-assess With historical hindsight, we know that the meet- conventional wisdom concerning the inclusion of the ing failed to bring about the much-longed-for univer- oriental carpet in early Renaissance paintings, and sal Christian unity, but in 1439 hopes ran high. In my propose some controversial new conclusions. chapter, I speculated that this conference with its de- sire for East-West religious union spawned a whole The examination of hundreds of examples ar- new genre of religious painting – the VDFUDFRQYHUVD]L ranged in chronological order made it clear that the one or the “sacred conversation” -- where the Virgin is Victorian-era theory as to the purpose of the carpet surrounded by her gently conversing saints [Fig. 1].4 I LQ WKHVH SDLQWLQJV ZDV VHULRXVO\ ÁDZHG :LWKLQ WKLV further proposed that Fra Angelico, a monk resident time frame (ca. 1250–1500), WKeFDUSeWGLGnoWonFeVLJ at the time in the Florentine convent of San Marco, nLI\GoPeVWLFFoPIoUWOX[XU\oUVWDWXV. Instead, in over SDLQWHGWKHYHU\ÀUVW,WDOLDQVDFUDFonYeUVD]Lone specif- two-thirds of the paintings, it clearly delineated the ically for his fellow Dominicans there who had hosted Precinct of the Virgin, with the carpet conspicuously the Council in Florence in 1439 [Fig. 2]. Fra Angelico placed as holy ground beneath Mary’s feet in her role depicted a heavenly gathering of saints under the be- as Mother Church. The carpet appeared in paintings nign gaze of the Virgin and, in this ground-breaking large and small, created for public or private devotion, painting, he prominently included an oriental carpet for guilds or merchants in disparate municipalities beneath the Virgin’s feet.5 and regions, but invariably it marked holy ground be- neath the Virgin and her saints. But the carpet itself gave me pause. Given my own expectations and academic training, this object ought By extension, the marking of the holy ground of to have been a luxurious pile carpet signifying status Mother Church is further seen in Renaissance depic- and wealth. Instead, Fra Angelico featured a VLPSOHÁDWZHDYHUXJZLWKFUXGHDOPRVWIRON- loric animal motifs. The depicted carpet was not luxurious by any stretch of the imagination. How could Fra Angelico have made such a mis- WDNHɆDQGZK\ZDVVXFKDFDUSHWHYHQWKHUH" My puzzlement over the inclusion of this UXVWLF LWHP LQ VXFK D VLJQLÀFDQW SDLQWLQJ EH- gan an almost decade-long quest to rethink the role of the oriental carpet within Renaissance paintings. For an art historian specializing in east-west artistic exchange, the premise of the Muslim-made carpet included as a mere sta- tus symbol and/or a trophy perch for the Vir- gin quickly became intellectually unsatisfying, SDUWLFXODUO\ DIWHU ÀQGLQJ VR PDQ\ LQVWDQFHV such as the Fra Angelico altarpiece, where the old Berlin School theory simply did not apply. I

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99 tions of the rituals surrounding the Seven Sacraments In particular, these new data call attention to one RIWKH/DWLQFKXUFKEDSWLVPFRQÀUPDWLRQ(XFKDULVW of the most long-lasting legacies of the Berlin School (celebrating the Mass), almsgiving (the repentant giv- of thought: its bias against Christian participation in ing of charity), ordination into holy orders, marriage, the art of carpet weaving, which has hobbled Carpet and last rites (including Christian burial). A large sub- Studies from the beginning.7 As I was assembling section of the Carpet Index paintings is devoted to de- the Carpet Index and beginning to conclude that the picting these rituals, especially the most public sacra- carpets in question were of Christian origin, I came ments of marriage, the giving of charity, and funeral upon Volkmar Gantzhorn’s pioneering study that VFHQHVZKHUHDJDLQWKHFDUSHWVLJQLÀHVKRO\JURXQG had earlier argued the case for Christian weavers, and KLV ZRUN KDV VROLGLÀHG PXFK RI The surprises of the Carpet In- my own.8 The land mass that we dex data did not stop with the dis- call Asia Minor or Anatolia was covery of iconographic and sacra- populated by local Christians for mental meaning. Not only did the almost a millennium before and eastern carpet mark holy ground, another millennium after the ar- but within another subsection of ULYDORIWKHÀUVWIROORZHUVRI0R- the Index, certain recognizable hammed in the 10th century.9 It carpets appeared multiple times, is wishful thinking to insist that often over several centuries. Inter- carpet weaving suddenly arrived estingly, these repeating carpets and burgeoned on the Anatolian are among the oldest depicted. plateau onO\ with the arrival of These were not the sumptuous the late-coming nomadic Muslims pile carpets of later fame but plain from the east, and that somehow XWLOLWDULDQÁDWZHDYHVRIWHQZLWK the inclusion of carpets in western crude animal imagery, very simi- )LJ)UD%DUWoOoPeo0LUDFXOoXV$nnXnFLDWLon Christian paintings before 1500 lar to the San Marco carpet by Fra 6DnWLVVLPD$nnXn]LDWD)OoUenFe indicates an oddly benign trade Angelico of 1439 [Fig. 2 above]. relationship between bitter and Despite their lack of luxury, the rude carpets were re- antagonistic religious rivals. peated in paintings large and small, all dedicated to My work, however, takes us beyond Gantzhorn’s the Virgin: one distinctive carpet in Florence repeats initial observations of the possibility of Christian at least 9 times from 1250 to 1472 [Fig. 3]; an entire- weavers in Asia Minor: I advocate that we view the ly different old rug appears over 18 times in Sienese depictions in European paintings as historical mark- paintings from 1300 to 1462, where it visibly ages and ers in themselves. As such, I suggest that many of the fragments [Fig. 4]. carpets that we observe in early Renaissance paintings Clearly, there were problems with conventional were actual revered relics brought by small groups of wisdom. The most glaring gap in conventional carpet (DVWHUQ&KULVWLDQVɆ6\ULDQV*UHHNV*HRUJLDQVEXW theory, however, is that specialists simply did not )LJ6DnoGL3LeWUo7Ke%eWUoWKDOoIWKe9LUJLnFD KDYHɆDQGQHYHUKDYHKDGɆDQDGHTXDWHH[SODQD- 0XVeL9DWLFDnL tion for the core problem: what is a Muslim carpet doing in a Christian painting in the ÀUVW SODFH" Indeed, the evidence indicates that the carpets which entered Europe and appeared in paintings before 1500 were noW commercial items manufactured by Ana- tolian Muslims for luxury-loving western Christians. Instead, the new data in the Car- pet Index point toward an eastern Christian origin for these carpets in Asia Minor and the Greater Armenian Highlands, and indi- cate that the carpets themselves held deep UHOLJLRXVVLJQLÀFDQFHWRWKRVHZKREURXJKW them west. The simplest, most obvious an- swer in this Renaissance context is the best: These are Christian carpets that we are see- ing in Christian paintings. 100 HVSHFLDOO\$UPHQLDQVɆÁHHLQJZHVWZDUGLQDGYDQFH 1291. This symbiosis between the Latin mendicant or- of Mamluk, Mongol, and Ottoman incursions into GHUVDQGWKH&LOLFLDQDUWLVWV,VXJJHVWLVUHÁHFWHGLQ their ancestral lands. Thus the aging carpets shown the decoration programs in the newly built churches over centuries in Florentine and Sienese paintings can in Florence and Siena.15 be seen anew as relics, historical objects of great ven- My primary example for this demographic shift is a 10 eration brought from the Christian East. Their repeti- ÁDWZHDYHUXJZLWKIRONORULFPRWLIVWKDWÀUVWDSSHDUHG tion in paintings before 1500 implies that these carpets in the west in a painting around 1300 [Fig. 4]. My re- were recognizable entities within their new European search indicates that the carpet represents an already communities and of great importance to the émigrés. revered Christian rug that was spirited away to the Indeed, fragments of carpets which closely match the west by a family of Cilician Armenians seeking safe- oldest depicted ones, came onto the art market in the ty when the Holy Land fell to Muslim forces in 1291. th 19 century from church treasuries in Italy, apparent- +HOSHGE\WKH)UDQFLVFDQVWKHIDPLO\ÁHGWRDQHZOLIH 11 ly after being preserved there for centuries. LQ,WDO\VSHFLÀFDOO\FRPLQJWRUHVWZLWKLQWKHSLOJULP- Art historians have been largely blind to indicators age road city of Siena. There the precious relic carpet RIVLJQLÀFDQWFRORQLHVRIHDVWHUQ&KULVWLDQVPLJUDWLQJ was well-known within the assimilating Armenian to the west in the early modern period.12 Yet, archival community, reverently depicted in the Sienese FonWDGo GRFXPHQWDWLRQDQGYDULRXVKLVWRULFDOVWXGLHVFRQÀUP over 18 times in large altarpieces, frescoes, and small WKDW EHJLQQLQJ DIWHU WKH ÀUVW &UXVDGH DQG FHUWDLQ- devotional triptychs. The last time it was painted was ly by 1100), trade, social relations and intermarriage in 1462 (where it appeared to be in tatters) when the developed among the Crusaders and various groups Sienese Pope Pius II commissioned its inclusion in a of eastern Christians who supported the European painting for his new cathedral in the southern Tuscan venture to return the Holy Land to Christian control town of Pienza [Fig. 5].16 13 (Runciman 1994, p. 29 and SDVVLP). Western relations Like the Sienese relic carpet itself, arguably the small with Byzantium and Greek Orthodoxy were decid- EXW VLJQLÀFDQW $UPHQLDQ PLJUDWLRQV LQWR WKH ,WDOLDQ edly less friendly than most art historians propose, peninsula have been hiding in plain sight for many and cultural relations were severely strained after the centuries. One intriguing but ignored signal of this Crusaders sacked Constantinople in 1204. During this demographic shift (and this applies to other eastern same period, however, Crusader relations remained Christian groups as well) is that, beginning in the 13th warm with the other eastern Christian groups who century each new wave of refugees brought with it supported them against the Byzantines: notably the their own patron saints. These saints were then added Armenians, the Georgians, and the Syrian Christians to locally venerated ones on the Italian peninsula as who had long chafed under Byzantine domination. the newcomers acclimated to their new surroundings. %HJLQQLQJZLWKWKHÀUVW&UXVDGH ² DQGFHU- ,Q7XVFDQ\VSHFLÀFDOO\ZHVKRXOGORRNDWWKHHPHUJ- tainly after the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187, LQJ YHQHUDWLRQ RI $UPHQLDQ QDWLRQDO VDLQWV Ɇ %DU- successive small waves of Armenians and other east- tolomeo, Taddeo, Gregorio, and lesser-known Arme- ern Christians with family and business ties to the nian martyrs such as S. Miniato, S. Biagio, S. Vittorio west left to pursue business opportunities on the Ital- ɆZKREHJDQWRKDYHHVWDEOLVKHGFKXUFKHVIURPWKH ian peninsula along the pilgrimage roads to Rome that 13th century onward. As an example, the Armenian pa- led directly through Tuscany. tron saint Bartolomeo was added to the patron saints During the chaos and uncertainty that followed the of Siena by 1215 (just a decade after the fall of Con- fall of the Crusader kingdoms at the end of the 13th stantinople), and later the Cilician martyr Vittorio was century, a new group of Armenian refugees began to added in 1308 (about a decade and a half after the fall DUULYHLQ,WDO\ɆWKHVHZHUHDUWLVWVDQGFUDIWVPHQIURP of Acre. See Norman 1999, pp. 35–36). The civic pres- Armenian Cilicia, whose livelihoods were threatened HQFHRIWKHVHIRUHLJQVDLQWVZRXOGVXJJHVWDQLQÁX[RI by new DnLFonLF Sunni overlords.14 The artists and merchants and craftsmen from the Greater Armenian craftsmen were helped by the newly-emergent Fran- Highlands and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia.17 In ciscans and Dominicans, whose missionaries were the same vein, other Eastern Christian populations also being forced out of the Outremer and who were in Italy would be indicated by churches and chapels returning home to Tuscany after the fall of Acre in dedicated to Syrian, Greek, and Georgian saints. This movement of small groups of eastern )LJ'eWDLOoIFDUSeWLnSDLnWLnJ Christians over several centuries is not FoPPLVVLoneG Ln  E\ 3oSe merely theoretical or based on the visu- 3LXV,,IoUWKeneZFDWKeGUDOLnWKe al evidence of the painted carpets and/ VoXWKeUn7XVFDnWoZnoI3Len]D or the ethnicity of imported saints: a DNA study from 2005 found that up to 101 10% of randomly tested Italian men show the unusual pets became proud, familial reminders of their eastern “G-marker” on their Y-chromosome, which indicates past. Armenian, Georgian, or other Caucasian background Marking a demographic shift, the carpet restores a in their male line.18 forgotten legacy Conclusions: three new theories As such, this re-examination of the oriental carpet Working from a database of over 800 paintings in the opens a whole new window onto life and art in the ear- Carpet Index, it is now possible to re-assess some of ly Renaissance. By the time of the Reformation, these the core tenets of the discipline of Carpet Studies. To assimilated groups of Armenians, Greeks, Georgians, be fair, before the advent of the internet, so much of and Syrians were no longer distinguishable from their this new information was not readily available to the European co-religionists, and with the Reformation HDUO\ 9LFWRULDQ VSHFLDOLVWV LQ WKH ÀHOG . Third, and possibly most important, carpets in ear- ly Renaissance paintings can now be understood References as visual markers of a demographic shift across the Mediterranean basin. Westward migrations of small Arnold 1999 communities of eastern Christians occurred over sev- Lauren Arnold. 3ULnFeO\*LIWVDnG3DSDO7UeDVXUeV7Ke)UDn eral centuries, as families of merchants, painters and FLVFDn0LVVLonWo&KLnDDnGLWV,nÁXenFeonWKe$UWoIWKe:eVW craftsmen from Cilicia and the Armenian Highlands ². San Francisco: Desiderata Press, 1999 resettled in the hill towns of Italy along the pilgrimage Atamiam 1984 roads to Rome. They brought their relic carpets with Ani Pauline Atamiam, “The Diocese of Nachivan in the Sev- them and, over time as they assimilated into the sac- enteenth Century,” Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Columbia raments of the Latin Church, the paintings with car- University, 1984.

102 Bode 1892 Spallanzani 2007 , “Ein altpersischer Teppich im Besitz der Marco Spallanzani, 2ULentDO5XJVLn5enDLVVDnFe)OoUenFe. Fi- königlichen Museen zu Berlin. Studien zur Geschichte der renze: S.P.E.S., 2007. westasiatischen Knüpfteppiche.” -DKUEXFKGeU.|nLJOLFK3Ue Spuhler 1987 XVVLVFKe.XnVWVDPPOXnJen 13/2-3 (1892): 108–37. Friedrich Spuhler, 2ULentDO&DUSetVLnthe0XVeXPoI,VODPLF Denny 2002 $Ut%eUOLn. Tr. by Robert Pinner. Washington, DC: Smithso- Walter Denny. 7Ke &ODVVLFDO 7UDGLWLonLn$nDWoOLDn&DUSeWV. nian Institution Pr., 1987. Washington, DC: The Textile Museum, 2002. Verde 2010 Erdmann 1970 Tom Verde, “Threads on a Canvas.” 6DXGL $UDPFo:oUOG, Kurt Erdmann.6eYen+XnGUeG , accessed 10 ley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Pr., 1970. November 2014. Gantzhorn 1998 Notes Volkmar Gantzhorn. 2ULenWDO&DUSeWV7KeLU,FonoOoJ\DnG,Fo noJUDSK\IUoPWKe(DUOLeVW7LPeVWoWKeth&entXU\. Translat- 1. The perception that Muslim weavers in Turkey/Anatolia ed by Charles Madsen. Köln and New York: Taschen, 1998. and Persia were and always have been the only source of (Originally published as 7he&hULVtLDn2ULentDO&DUSet). carpets found in European paintings was formulated by the Grafton 1993 German founders of Carpet Studies in the late 19th century, Anthony Grafton (ed.) 5oPe5eEoUn7he9DtLFDn/LEUDU\DnG including Wilhelm von Bode, who largely based their obser- 5enDLVVDnFe&XOtXUe. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, vations on the then-50-year-old Turkish commercial carpet 1993. industry. A prime advocate of Muslim origin theory was the mid-20th century specialist Kurt Erdmann. For his views on Islamic Figurative Art 2004-2014 carpet-weaving as a uniquely Muslim craft, see Erdmann “Islamic Figurative Art and Depictions of Muhammad,” 1970 and the work of his student Friedrich Spuhler, both of 2004–2014. On-line at , Spuhler 1987, Introduction, pp. 9–16). accessed 10 November 2014. 2. See Mack 2002 and Denny 2002 (also Tom Verde’s 2010 Leonertz 1934 interview with Walter Denny). Spallanzani 2007 is the most Raymond-Joseph Leonertz, O.P. “Les missions dominic- thorough and interesting of the current traditionalists, as he aines en Orient et la Société des Frères pérégrinants.” $U delves into actual Florentine archival sources and invento- FhLYXP)UDtUXP3UDeGLFDtoUXP IV (1934): 1–47. ries for his information, rather than relying on older German secondary sources. Mack 2002 3. The Dominicans had considerable contact with the Arme- Rosamond Mack. %D]DDUto 3LD]]D ,VODPLF 7UDGeDnG ,tDOLDn nian 8nLtoUeV in the Greater Armenian Highlands, who were $Ut². Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of Califor- pro-Latin and at odds with the Armenian Orthodox Church. nia Pr., 2002. For Latin Christians in the Armenian province of Nachivan, McDonald 2005 see Leonertz 1934 and Oudenrijn 1936. Atamiam 1984, an unpublished Ph.D. thesis that has contributed greatly to my J. Douglas McDonald. [Maps of worldwide distribution forthcoming work, is a thorough and illuminating work on of Y chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA haplogroups], the later Dominicans in Armenia. 2005, on-line at , accessed 10 November 2014. 4. I theorize that the bearded saints in Fra Angelico’s paint- ing very likely represent the delegates of several eastern Norman 1999 denominations, i.e., Greek Orthodox and Armenian Ortho- Diana Norman. 6LenDDnGthe9LUJLn$UtDnG3oOLtLFVLnD/Dte dox, while the clean-shaven saints represent the Latin dele- 0eGLeYDO&Lt\6tDte. New Haven and London: Yale Univ. Pr., gates, all conversing in new-found harmony around Mother 1999. Church. Oudenrujn 1936 5. It can be argued that the Flemish artist Jan van Eyck paint- Marcus Antonius van den Oudenrijn, O.P. “Bishops and HGWKHYHU\ÀUVWRIWKLVJHQUHLQKLV0DGonnDDnG&DnnonYDn Archbishops of Naxivan.” $UFhLYXP)UDtUXP3UDeGLFDtoUXP GeU3DeOe, dated 1436, which pre-dated the Council of Flor- VI (1936): 161–216. ence by several years. The carpet contained in Jan’s work also repeats itself 5 times over a century in Bruges, last seen Runciman 1994 in 1526.This Flemish relic carpet is discussed in the series of Steven Runciman. $+LVtoU\oIthe&UXVDGeVVol. 2.7he.LnJ online lectures on “Re-Thinking the Oriental Carpet in Ear- GoPoI-eUXVDOePDnGthe)UDnNLVh(DVt². London: Fo- O\5HQDLVVDQFH3DLQWLQJVµEHLQJÀOPHGLQWKHIDOORI lio Society, 1994. Contact the author for more information.

103 6. Between 2008 and 2013, the Carpet Index was accessi- Armenian and Syrian women. For instance, one of the most ble online to a small group of critics and friends. It was re- famous intermarriages was that of King Baldwin II of Jeru- leased to the general public in February 2013, at a meeting salem (r. 1118–31), who, when he was Count of Edessa, mar- sponsored by the Armenian Rugs Society in Laguna Beach, ried a local Armenian princess, Morphia of Melitene (d. ca. California. The Carpet Index and the essays in Circa 1440 1127), and with her had their daughter Melisende (1105–61), are found online on ÁLFNU at KWWSVZZZÁLFNUFRPSKR- who succeeded her father Baldwin as Queen of Jerusalem. tos/26911776@N06/collections/72157632803028991/>, the See Runciman 1994, p. 29 and SDVVLP. direct link to the images being . of living creatures in the Koran, but the various +DGLth or 7. See Erdmann 1970. Erdmann was adamantly against the sayings of the Prophet contain numerous warnings against idea of Christian weavers. His explanation of the presence it, including: “Those who paint pictures would be punished of animal carpets found in early Renaissance paintings is on the Day of Resurrection and it would be said to them: ÀUPO\ WUDGLWLRQDO SS ²  ´$IWHU  QR VXFK DQLPDO Breathe soul into what you have created.” (Hadith, 6DhLh carpets seem to have been represented in a European paint- 0XVOLP vol.3, no. 5268); and “Narrated ‘Aisha [wife of the ing and we may therefore assume that, in the course of the Prophet]: The Prophet entered upon me while there was a 15th c., their production came to an end. The reasons for this curtain having SLFtXUeV oIDnLPDOV in the house. His face got DUHQRWGLIÀFXOWWRJXHVV,QWKLVJURXSZHDUHGHDOLQJXQ- red with anger, and then he got hold of the curtain and tore doubtedly with Anatolian products. In the 13th and 14th cen- it into pieces. The Prophet said, ‘Such people as paint these turies Anatolia was ruled by the Turkish Seljuks who took pictures will receive the severest punishment on the Day of NLQGO\WRWKHUHSUHVHQWDWLRQRIÀJXUHVLQWKHLUDUW,QWKHth Resurrection.’” (%XNhDUL vol. 8, book 73, no.130). The Sunni century, the Ottomans, who were also Turks, became the tradition tends to be more DnLFonLF, or against images, than UXOHUVDQGWRDJUHDWH[WHQWGLVSHQVHGZLWKÀJXUHV7KLVZDV the Shiite tradition embraced by the Persians. See Islamic certainly on religious grounds because according to strict Figurative Art 2004–2014. Muslim teaching the representation of men or animals is 15. Over the next few centuries (especially after the fall of forbidden…” Acre in 1291) the mendicant orders facilitated the resettle- 8. Volkmar Gantzhorn’s original work from the 1980s, es- ment and employment of the refugee Armenian artists from tablishing the concept of the Christian carpet, is now over 30 Cilicia (who were renowned in their homeland for the beau- \HDUVROGDQGQHZUHVHDUFKKDVUHYHDOHGVRPHÁDZVLQKLV ty of their manuscript illuminations and gold and silver li- theories. Nevertheless, his pioneering work on the Christian turgical objects) in decorating their vast new Tuscan church- carpet has no match in modern Carpet Studies. es. Settled with their extended families and workshops in towns in Tuscany all along the pilgrimage roads to Rome, 9. Beginning with the arrival of the nomadic Seljuks who but especially in conservative Siena, their evolving artistic formed the Sultanate of Rum (Rome) in central Anatolia in RXWSXWKDGDGHFLGHGO\´%\]DQWLQHµÁDLU 1060. The Seljuks were Oghuz Turks who originated on the Kazahk steppes of Turkestan north of the Caspian and Aral 16. It is even possible that the tattered relic fragment still Seas. They converted to Sunni Islam around 985, and in the exists, hidden away within the sealed and consecrated altar 11th century began their migrations west into Asia Minor. that Pius dedicated upon the completion of the church in the summer of 1462. The altar seal that Pius himself set has 10. It is possible that the Sienese repeating carpet was be- never been broken. lieved to have been an actual item in the Virgin’s home at the time of the Annunciation. As such, it might have been 17. When hard documents are lacking, anthropologists and brought out on the Feast of the Annunciation, March 25, and sociologists often use “anthroponymic data,” where eth- displayed during popular re-enactments of the holy event. QLF QDPHV ZLWKLQ D VSHFLÀF KLVWRULFDO FRQWH[W RIWHQ \LHOG considerable demographic information. For instance, the 11. See von Bode 1892. Wilhelm von Bode, the illustrious popularity in Italy of S. Biagio (St. Blasius or St. Blaise, an scholar and collector who directed the Berlin Museums be- Armenian bishop martyred in what is now Sivas, Turkey) fore WWI, collected the famous Dragon Carpet fragment in would indicate a migration of Armenians from what is now the 1880s that was said to have come on the art market from northern Turkey or the Armenian Highlands. Over 80 Ital- a church treasury in Umbria, Italy. It is possible that the ian churches are dedicated to S. Biagio, more than half of Dragon Carpet fragment is the actual relic carpet depicted in them in Tuscany. Florentine paintings; even if it is not, my research convinces me of its Armenian origin. 18. McDonald 2005 found that 7 to 11% of randomly tested Italian men had the distinctive Haplogroup “G” marker on 12. An even earlier wave of eastern Christian migration their Y or male chromosome, which according to Wikipedia, came to the Italian peninsula in the 8th century, as Byzantine is “most common in the Caucasus, the Iranian plateau, and iconoclasts forced Armenians and other eastern Christians Anatolia; in Europe mainly in Italy, Greece, northern Spain, IURPWKHVDPHDUHDVWRÁHHZHVWFDUU\LQJWKHLUSUHFLRXVDUW the Tyrol, as well as Bohemia, Moravia; Britain and Norway works and relics with them — hence the establishment of at only 2%.” Although the sample of Italian men was small, S. Gregorio Armeno in Naples, and the various relics of S. the unusually high percentage with this marker indicates Bartolomeo that arrived in Rome during the same period. some eastern patrilineal descent. 13. Many intermarriages — both high and low — took place 19. The Belgian scholar Fredrik R. Martin, author of $+LV between Crusaders (and their non-soldier followers) and toU\oI2ULentDO&DUSetVEeIoUe (Vienna, 1908), concluded

104 that eastern Christian weavers had a place in the history of 21. Although, I contend that it retained much of its sacra- early Anatolian carpet production. His conclusions were PHQWDOVLJQLÀFDQFHHVSHFLDOO\LQ'XWFK*ROGHQ$JHJHQUH roundly dismissed by the American scholar Arthur Upham paintings. See my series of online lectures on “Re-Thinking Pope and other traditionalists, who argued for Muslim ex- the Oriental Carpet in Early Renaissance Paintings,” Seg- clusivity. PHQW9,7KH6DFUDPHQWDO&DUSHWµEHLQJÀOPHGLQWKHIDOORI 20. See Spallanzani 2007, p. 18, for an overview of the me- 2014. Contact the author for more information. For a visual chanics of the late 15th century carpet trade in Florence. history of this era, and its sumptuous Persian and Turkish Spallanzani’s archival work is a marvelous gift to carpet carpets, see Onno Ydema’s work &DUSetVDnGtheLU'DtLnJVLn specialists: see especially documents 67b, 84, 88b, 98, and 1etheUODnGLVh3DLntLnJV² (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 127 that mention the merchants involved, some of whom 1991). (by their names) might have eastern Christian heritage.

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