MAIN TYPES OF DECOR OF TURKISH CARPETS OF THE 14TH – EARLY 20ST CENTURIES AFTER PAINTINGS BY EUROPEAN ARTISTS

Abstract

Turkish carpets originate from Anatolia (also known as Asia Minor) – a peninsula in Western Asia, adjacent to the Balkans. Translated from Greek, this part of the world means «sunrise», as it is washed by four seas, in which the rays of the sun are reflected when it rises: the Black, Marmara, Aegean and Mediterranean. This mountainous area, which was formed on the lands of ancient Lydia, parts of Media and Cilicia during the Byzantine Empire, had geographical and climatic conditions that contributed to the development of textile production. These lands were reached by the Persians-Achaemenids from pre-Christian times, who had developed traditions of carpet weaving, and the Armenians also ruled in Lesser, Ervandid, Western and Greater Armenia and the Armenian Empire. From the 11th century AD, the Turks, or Türks, mixed with the local population here. The name of the latter translates as «strong, sturdy». They were of Oghuz-Turkmen origin, natives of Central Asia, the territories of the former Khorezm, which was temporarily part of the Achaemenid state, and further along this territory the Great Silk Road passed. Having transformed the single Persian knot, local weavers mastered the stronger double Turkish knot around the 12th– 13th centuries. Later, in the 14th century, Anatolian carpets from these lands reached Southern and Western Europe, in particular, Italy, Flanders, Belgium, Holland, and France, where they were reflected in the works of famous masters of the brush – Simone Martini, Fra Filippo Lippi, Jan van Eyck, Andrea Mantegna, Giovanni di Paolo, Moretti of Bresciaб Lorenzo Lotto, Hans Holbein the Younger, Willеm Cornelisz Duyster, Jean-Dominique Ingres, Shandor Alexander SvobodaJean-Léon Gérôme. The listed artists throughout the 14th – early 20th centuries addressed the theme of Turkish (Anatolian) carpets in their work, thanks to which they left us a legacy of both traditional patterns known to this day, and lost ones that remained known only through the paintings of famous artists.