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Carpet

A work made of cotton and wool, plain weave with discontinuous supplementary wrapping wefts (soumak); square braided main warp fringe.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of cotton and wool, plain weave with discontinuous supplementary wrapping wefts (soumak); square braided main warp fringe.

Date:

1864

Artist:

Caucasus, Shirvan

About this artwork

The prevalent Chinese dragon design appears on this sileh, or flat-woven soumak carpet, from the Caucasus. These geometric dragons are flying with thier tails high in the air, and the bottom extensions of the backward “S” shapes represent their lower jaws. Carpets with inscriptions and dates are extremely rare, but this example is even more remarkable beacause it was woven in one piece; the large majority of such carpets were woven in two parts. Its exceptionally rich coloring, including a wide range of blue and green tones is also an unusual feature.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Textiles

Title

Carpet

Place

Caucasus (Object made in)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1864

Medium

Cotton and wool, plain weave with discontinuous supplementary wrapping wefts (soumak); square braided main warp fringe

Dimensions

346.7 × 230 cm (136 1/2 × 90 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Dave Chapman

Reference Number

1972.1190

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/41393/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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