Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. Images are beautiful bright and vivid. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> The present study is focused on the intersection of two civilizations. on the one hand Islamic textile art and specifically the art of the Islamic carpet; and on the other Western European painting. As we will show the richly designed Oriental weavings with curious ornaments strongly appealed to the taste of Western painters; it has even been suggested that the Oriental use of colour influenced the Great Venetians’. Italian paintings frequently display carpets that serve either as the background for the representation of saints clergy and secular dignitaries or as embellishment for balustrades windows and floors to indicate exceptional festivities. Often carpets were portrayed as floor decorations in paintings. In these representations the carpet functions iconographically as a dais in a composition which does not necessarily correspond to the reality of actual use in those times. The rarity and costliness of Eastern carpets usually warranted a careful treatment in actual use whereby wear was minimalized. Undoubtedly these carpets were generally used as table-covers or to cover other pieces of furniture such as trunks and chests. As such they were not subjected to the wear implied in every-day use as floor-covering. It is not until the 18th century that Oriental carpets are commonly used as floor-covering in the Netherlands (ie. the Southern Netherlands or Flanders and the Northern Netherlands or the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands) and it must have been at that time that many of the remaining earlier Oriental carpets in the Netherlands were worn out and lost. The loss was great; in the Northern Netherlands only three surviving examples of Oriental carpets are known to have been in Dutch possession ever since the 17th century. It is remarkable given the large number of extant 17th century Dutch paintings representing Eastern carpets (which would suggest that a relatively great number must have been present in these regions in the 17th century) that hardly any of these carpets appear to have been preserved to the present day in the Netherlands. (MP)