CHURCH & MUSEUM COLLECTIONS Transylvanian Tale STEFANO IONESCU

A four-year project to research and catalogue all 15th to 18th century Ottoman rugs in Transylvania will shortly be published, with extensive colour illustrations, in English, Italian and Romanian editions. The author, who is the driving force behind the project, dicusses its background and discusses one of the rug world’s most intriguing mysteries.

partial idea of the extent of this trade. However, it is likely that many thousands of Turkish rugs arrived in Transylvania, of which a substantial number remained there. The Balkan nations and the Romanian principalities south and north of the Danube were also crisscrossed by this trade, and oriental carpets were highly prized in these regions. Why then have they only survived in significant numbers in Transylvania? The reasons for this pheno- menon are associated above all with the ways in which the rugs were used and valued. A crucial factor in their survival was the fact that so many rugs came into the ownership of the Saxon Evangelical

Alex Marginean Churches, mainly as pious dona- tions from parishioners, benefact- he churches and museums of the Ottoman Empire. 1. Above: The pulpit ors or guilds. Church communities Transylvania safeguard the Without attempting a resume of in the Black Church, never bought rugs, nor raised cus- Bras¸ov, flanked by Tgreatest legacy of small-format the region’s complex history, we ‘Lotto’, ‘Transylvan- toms duties, and there is no record Ottoman rugs in the Western world: should note that Transylvania (like ian’ and a variety of merchants making such donat- almost four hundred examples inc- the other Romanian principalities of west Anatolian ions. But in the austere and niche rugs luding ‘Holbeins’, Ushaks, ‘Lottos’, of Moldavia and Wallachia) never aniconic spirit of the early Refor- ‘Selendis’ and ‘Transylvanians’, came under direct Turkish occupa- 2. Right: ‘Ghirland- mation, they were considered many in astonishingly good condit- tion. Until 1699 it maintained the aio’ two-medallion decent, and indeed suitable, decor- rug, west Anatolia, ion, attributable to the golden per- status of an autonomous princi- mid-15th century. ation for recently denuded (former iod of Turkish weaving from the pality, paying tribute to the Sublime 1.30 x 1.87m (4'3" x Catholic) churches. And when used 2 mid-15th to the mid-18th century. Porte. By contrast, part of Hungary 6'2"), 840 kn/dm . by parishioners to mark out their Alberto Boralevi No complete explanation has was designated a Pashalik following must be thanked personal space in the church, they ever been provided for this fascin- the Battle of Mohacs in 1526, and for rediscovering also subtly hinted at the wealth ating cultural phenomenon. We was under Turkish occupation for and dating this rug, and prestige of their owners. which is one of the remain challenged by the question over a century and a half. most spectacular Today, while many rugs remain of why so many rugs have survived Surviving documents confirm rugs in the Transyl- the property of the same Saxon in the Reformed Churches of the that the principal way rugs arrived vanian holdings. churches,2 a significant number are The minor ‘S’ chain Saxon minority of Transylvania, in Transylvania was through trade borders are similar also preserved in Romanian who for centuries have shared the with the Turks. The Saxon towns to those on other museum collections and a few in region with a Romanian (Orthodox of BraÎov (Kronstadt) and Sibiu 15th century exam- the Hungarian Reformed churches. ples such as the and Catholic) and a Hungarian (Hermannstadt), on main routes to Dragon and Phoenix The Brukenthal Museum in (Catholic and Calvinist) population. Central Europe, became influential rug in Berlin’s Sibiu has the most important The rugs are an important part of trading centres.1 The trade lasted Islamic Museum; institutional collection in Tran- Schmutzler 1933, the cultural inheritance of Romania from the mid-15th to the end of pl.8. Evangelical sylvania and Romania. It holds 43 as well as being the most significant the 18th century, a period that Church, Hålchiu, classical Turkish rugs, including a repository of Turkish art in south- correlates with the age of the Turk- no. 23 famous small-pattern ‘Holbein’, east Europe, an area for so long ish rugs preserved in Transylvania. (Schmutzler, pl.10). The rugs were under the military domination of Documents only provide a very transferred to the museum around

52 I HALI 137 CHURCH & MUSEUM COLLECTIONS All photos Arpad Udvardi Brashov

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1910 from the great Parish Church lished in 1933 by Emil Schmutzler, 3. Left: ‘Transylvan- the collections. He wrote that: and the so-called Asylum Church, a member of a prominent Saxon ian’ six-column rug, “The greedy hands of the merchants tried west Anatolia, mid- both in Sibiu, and from other family from BraÎov and a highly 17th century. 1.15 x in every possible way to lay hold of these minor Saxon parishes. knowledgeable carpet collector. 1.79m (3'9" x 5'10"), objects. When honesty was no longer 2 The History Museum of Transyl- His book is of unique document- 1,300kn/dm . For possible, they bribed the sextons and they many years incor- vania in Cluj-Napoca has a less ary value. Not only did he under- rectly thought to be cut up valuable items so as to remove well-known collection, including take the first complete inventory the rug published them at night through the loopholes of the eleven pre-19th century Ottoman of the collections, identifying 440 as pl.25 in the 1977 fortified church walls”.3 Dall’Oglio reprint rugs, acquired between the end of rugs in over forty Saxon Churches, of Végh & Layer, It is evident that this activity the 19th century and 1914, mostly but he provided a photographic this is a particularly had begun several decades earlier. from northern Transylvania. record of each of the 55 rugs he beautiful example Writing in 1907, Ernst Kühlbrandt of the small group For several generations of rug discussed, enabling a comparison of ‘coupled-column’ stated that during the last decades scholars and enthusiasts, the prim- to be made with the state of each prayer rugs with a of the 19th century “several hundreds ary source of information on the piece some seventy years later. triple-arched niche of rugs were bought by rich collectors designated ‘type I’ 4 Turkish rugs from Transylvania At the time when Schmutzler by May H. Beattie. from Western Europe”. In many cases was Altorientalische Teppiche in Sieben- carried out his research, rugs were This sub-group has we have precise evidence that bürgen, the monumental study pub- already rapidly disappearing from lateral arches with Transylvania found itself serving unindented out- lines, no hanging as a main source not only for ornament or lamp, rugs belonging to the so-called fields that are ‘Transylvanian’ group but also for almost always red, and the bases of other classical Turkish groups such the thin columns as Ushaks, ‘Lottos’ and white- mirror the capitals. ground ‘Selendis’. It is also typical that above the Many of the Turkish rugs in niche there is a Hungarian museums were sourced crenellated frieze in this region. The Christian Mus- and a deep panel with nine to eleven eum in Esztergom holds the import- long-stemmed ant collection of Arnold Ipoly, flowers. The main including 18 Turkish rugs, assem- border is based on a curvilinear dia- bled in the second half of the 19th mond cartouche. century.5 In 1917, six rugs and two Black Church, fragments of a ‘Memling-gül’ Bras¸ov, no.227 carpet belonging to Emil Sigerus, a 4. Right: Selendi historian from Sibiu, were sold to ‘Scorpion’ rug, the Museum of Applied Arts in west Anatolia, mid- 6 17th century. 1.16 x Budapest, which had acquired 1.91m (5'3" x 6'3"), other rugs from the Diocesan 2 620 kn/dm . First Council of Calvinist Churches a published here, this 7 interesting rug, very few years earlier. similar to one in the In Vienna, the Museum of App- Budapest Museum lied Arts holds five Ottoman rugs of Applied Arts, is one of only four acquired in 1907-1908 from known with this B. Grünblatt, a Saxon dealer in rare design. The Sibiu.8 London’s Victoria & Albert bi-colour rosette and hooked leaf Museum also has a double-niche border appears in rug of Transylvanian origin, acces- some ‘Lotto’ rugs. sioned as early as 1889.9 Black Church, Bras¸ov, no.373 It is also highly probable that many Ottoman rugs in private collections in Hungary and Austria came from Transylvanian sources, even if there is now little like- lihood of tracing provenance in most cases. Not only the confiden- tiality of the marketplace but the passage of time and the political upheaval of two World Wars have resulted in the loss of docu- mentary and other evidence. Very occasionally inscriptions identi- fying Saxon donors reveal that a rug was once the property of a Saxon Church in Transylvania.10

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As far as collections in Britain are concerned, an interesting piece of anecdotal evidence is pro- vided by Edmund de Unger. Writing in the introduction to the 1978 catalogue of the Keir Collec- tion, he recalls how as a young man he bought his first carpet (a Selendi ‘bird’ rug) from a Hungarian Reformed Church near Târgul MureÎ in 1935, while cycling through Transylvania.11 As we assembled documenta- tion for Antique Ottoman Rugs in Transylvania, evidence emerged that shed light on the way in which, as a runner and dealer in antique carpets, Teodor Tuduc played a key role in the depredation of the rug collections held both by churches and individuals in Transylvania between 1930-1960. It is clear that Transylvania has been a major source of Ottoman Turkish rugs for public and private collections around the world. In assessing the real number of rugs that survived in the area, this must be taken into account. A further question then arises. Why, in spite of their attraction for collectors and the frequent references to rugs in the special- ised literature, have the collections in Transylvania been little studied and never published as a whole? A number of factors have made such an undertaking difficult. First, the collections have been carefully safeguarded by the churches and have thus remained relatively inac- cessible. Nor, over the years. has there been any sign of the emer- gence of a local school of art his- torians dedicated to the study of oriental rugs. Little has been published since Schmutzler,12 and there is hardly anything in the Romanian language about the Transylvanian legacy. Further problems are posed by the number of vague (often undoc- umented) explanations for the Nevertheless, Charles Grant Ellis’s group rugs, often excellently pre- presence of the rugs in the quirky hypothesis that some of the served, compared to the very small churches, and in particular by the rugs might have been produced in number found in Turkey. Attention persistent theory of their presumed the Balkans under Ottoman pro- is rarely drawn to the fact that rugs extra-Anatolian provenance. Ever vincial rule, has had a disproport- of this type, in all its familiar since the rugs in the Black Church ionate press and continues to variants (single and double-niche, were first catalogued by Kühlbrandt muddy the water, despite the lack prayer and column rugs), are also in 1898 (at the instigation of Alois of any documentary evidence. to be found in museums in Turkey,13 Riegl) they have been considered An additional stumbling block as well as in Beirut14 and Cairo.15 to be of Anatolian origin, and that has been the presence in the collec- Inevitably too the hostility of is still the opinion of most experts. tions of so many ‘Transylvanian’ the former communist regime in

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Romania has played its part in blocking or suffocating any initia- tives regarding an artistic legacy belonging almost in its entirety to the churches of the Saxon minority. Against this background, four years ago we embarked on the Antique Ottoman Rugs in Transylvania project, now nearing completion. Our aim was to publish an up-to- date, thoroughly researched and accessible study of the Transyl- vanian rug phenomenon, intended primarily for carpet lovers. In this venture we have been fortunate in having the generous support of the Superior Consistory, the governing body of the Evangelical Churches, from all the lesser collections, 5. Above: ‘Transyl- the rugs were taken out of Transyl- and the Brukenthal Museum. many of which contain remarkable vanian’ and white- vania in circumstances that have ground ‘Selendi’ The book investigates the his- pieces such as the wonderful rugs hanging in St never become clear, and remain in torical phenomenon of the Tran- ‘Ghirlandaio’ rug (2) from Hålchiu Margaret’s Evangel- the Germanisches Nationalmus- sylvanian collections, illustrating (Heldsdorf). We also publish 14 ical Church, Medias¸ eum in Nuremberg to this day.16 over 260 pre-19th century rugs in examples from Bist¸rita, which 6. Left: ‘Transylvan- The project has been the occas- colour. These include the entire owned one of the most interesting ian’ single-niche ion of positive and wide-reaching collection at the Black Church, as of all the Turkish rug collections, rug, west Anatolia, dialogue with the evangelical par- first half 17th cen- well as rugs from the great hold- numbering 57 pieces at the time of tury. 1.22 x 1.54m ishes who own the rugs. The frien- ings at MediaÎ and SighiÎoara, and Schmutzler’s inventory. In 1944, (4'0" x 5'2"), 1,600 dly collaboration of the pastors of 2 kn/dm . The impact these churches has been invalu- of this rare and previously unpub- able: the Reverend Christian Plajer lished rug is due to (BraÎov), Reinhart Guib (MediaÎ the highly satura- and district) and Bruno Fröhlich ted red, blue and ochre palette. The (SighiÎoara) also took it upon basic layout is that themselves to enlist the support of of a prayer rug, but their parishioners for our work. the field is richly ornamented with Prior to photography inside the decoration usually churches by local photographer seen in double- Arpad Udvardi, over 150 rugs were niche rugs with the vase motif. Rugs of washed by conservation specialists. this sub-group Technical analysis was carried out show great by a team headed by Rodica Dinu- consistency in design elements, lescu of the Brukenthal Museum, with arabesque- in collaboration with Alberto spandrels, star and Boralevi, who also catalogued all cartouche main borders, reciprocal the rugs. trefoil secondary An important part of the project borders and chain- has been the relaunch of a conser- link guard borders. Formerly in the vation initiative carried out for Evangelical Church, many years by Era Nussbächer in Valea Viilor (Wurm- BraÎov. In 2002 all the Black Church loch), no.21, now in St Margaret’s rugs (some 140, including those in Church, Medias¸ store) were washed and conserved. Two years later, in an attempt to increase the number of pieces exhibited, six rugs from the Parish of Petersberg near BraÎov, unseen for years and including the oldest ‘Lotto’ in Transylvania (7), were added to the Black Church display . In 2002 the MediaÎ rugs were washed and conserved and are now displayed on the white walls of the choir and over the parapets of the gallery of the Church of St

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7. Right: Ushak ‘Lotto’ rug, west Anatolia, second half 16th century. 1.21 x 2.01m (4'0" x 6'7"), 1, 340 knots/dm2. Arguably the most beautiful of the Transylvanian ‘Lottos’ and perhaps the oldest, distinguished by the refined yellow-ivory and blue arabesques of the field and the rare meander border with palmettes and infinite knots on a blue ground. The elegant ‘Anatolian-style’ field decoration is perfectly symmetrical on both vertical and horizontal axis; Schmutzler 1933, pl.19. Formerly in the Evangelical Church of Sânpetru (Petersberg), inv.13, now in the Black Church, Bras¸ov

Margaret (5). In 2004 twelve carpets and fragments from smaller local parishes were transferred to MediaÎ. Among these are a single- niche Transylvanian (6), a number of Lottos, and a Holbein fragment.17 This brings the MediaÎ holding up to almost forty pieces, including fragments, making it second in importance to the Black Church. The Brukenthal Museum has also begun to include some rugs on rotation in its permanent displays, while late 2003 saw the opening of the Museum of Art Collections in Bucharest. The displays include a number of important rugs, among them a rare single-niche ‘Transyl- vanian’. The museum also holds the only ex-Schmutzler Collection carpet (a ‘Lotto’) still in Romania. Looking to the future, in 2007 Sibiu will be designated European Capital of Culture. The Romanian Ministry of Culture has committed itself to a remarkable project that will make possible, for the first time, the public display of all 380 Ottoman carpets in the churches and museums that have safe- guarded them for so long.

Antique Ottoman Rugs in Transyl- vania, with over 260 colour illustrations, is published by Stefano Ionescu, with contrib- utions by Alberto Boralevi, Andrei Kertesz, Mircea Dunca, G. Schmutzler and others.

NOTES assembled an important collection in “TESTAMENTV D: MICH: GROS”; see Károly Carpets from the 13th-18th Centuries, Istanbul 1 | Successive Hungarian kings granted the second half of the 19th century. Csányi, Sandor Csermelyi, Károly 1996. these towns the right to levy duties. 6 | Ferenc Batári, Ottoman Turkish Carpets, Layer, Erdélyi török szönyegek kiállitásának 14 | Exposition de Tapis D’Orient, Musée 2 | Some of the inscriptions prove that Budapest 1994, nos.2, 9, 10, 12, 27, 31, 46. leiró lajstroma, Budapest 1914, no.216. Nicolas Sursock, Collection Sulayman a rug has been in the same church for 7 | Ibid., nos.21, 83. 11 | Friedrich Spuhler, Islamic Carpets and Alamuddin, Beirut 1963. over 350 years, making these among 8 | Angela Völker, Die orientalischen Textiles in the Keir Collection, London 15 | M. Mostafa, Turkish Prayer Rugs, Collec- the world’s most stable rug collections. Knüpfteppiche im M.A.K., Vienna 2001; 1978, p.25 tion of the Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo 1963. 3 | Emil Schmutzler, Altotrientalische Tep- MAK 6636-6639/1907 and T 6907/1908. 12 | The only book on the subject is 16 | The rugs are apparently still stored piche in Siebenbürgen, Leipzig 1933, p.17. 9 | VAM 225.1889; A.F. Kendrick, Victoria Andrei Kertesz-Badrus, Turkische Tep- in the Nuremberg Museum, where their 4 | Ernst Kühlbrandt, ‘Unsere alten and Albert Museum. Guide to the Collection of piche in Siebenburgen, Bucharest 1985, in future remains uncertain; see ‘Transyl- Kirchenteppiche’, in Die Karpathen, Carpets, London 1915; HALI 6/4, 1984, German, which illustrates 100 rugs, vanian Intrigue’, HALI 72, 1994, p.55. I, Kronstadt 1907. p.360, pl.IV. mostly in black and white. Kertesz is 17 | Charles Grant Ellis, ‘Ellis in Hol- 5 | Arnold Ipoly, the Catholic Bishop 10 | A rug in a Hungarian private also the author of several articles in beinland’, in Robert Pinner & Walter of Oradea in Transylvania (then part collection (Dr Keszler, J.R. Irma, German, Romanian and English. B. Denny (eds.), Oriental Carpet & textile of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), Budapest) bears the inscription: 13 | See, e.g., Nazan Ölçer et al., Turkish Studies I, London 1985, p.72, R-55.

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