Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 10. (Budapest, 1991)

BATÁRI Ferenc: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum három oszmán-török „Memling-szőnyeg"-e

FERENC BATÁRI THREE OTTOMAN-TURKISH "MEMLING RUGS" IN THE BUDAPEST MUSEUM OF APPLIED ARTS The Budapest Museum of Applied Arts owns, in its collection of Turkish carpets, three examples of so-called Memling rugs. These three items differ widely both in their time of origin - one is from the fifteenth century, the second from the eighteenth, and the third from the nineteenth century - and in production conditions then prevailing : two carpets were produced for the market in the workshops of craftsmen, while the third was made on the loom of a nomadic family for domestic use. Nevertheless, the ornamentation of all three carpets has the same origin, which reveals the conservatism, or rather the deep-seated respect for traditions, displayed by Islamic art. The fifteenth-century carpet (Plate l)-as our oldest Turkish specimen-enjoys a special place in our collection. As in the case of most of the early carpets, here, too, great care was taken in dyeing the yarncare which ensured that, five hundred years later, its colours are still as vivid as those of freshly-cut flowers. The infinitely repeated pattern, typical of this category of carpet, compliments its weaver on his or her sure sense of rhythm and feel for composition. The eighteenth-century fragment (Plate 2) is also the work of a craftsman, although the somewhat languid lines and the oversubtle, almost pastel, colouration show the unmistakable signs of decline typical of the late Ottoman period. The third carpet (Plate 3), which dates from the next century, is the work of nomads (yörük) and shows folkloric feature. A large number of nomadic tribes roamed the pastures of nineteenth-century Anatolia: the women wove carpets which followed the Medieval traditions both in drawing and in production technique. The thick pile of this particular carpet tells us that it was made to be used in the cold climate found high up in the mountains. A striking feature of the carpet is the use of strong colours, giving the composition a specific overall harmony which is strange to the Western eye. The ornamental motif common to all three carpets is a rhomboidal design, set in an octagon. Its four sides are broken up into steps which are further embellished with an inward-curving, rectangular hook (Plate 4). In the middle of each rhomboid, there is an eight-pointed star or some other octagonal design. The rhomboids can be repeated infinitely, or putting it otherwise, they make up a repetitive pattern. The two earliest carpets are of this (so-called small pattern) kind; the third one has its middle region filled with the blown-up version of the same pattern, confined to three motifs (the so-called large pattern). The same pattern can be found outside Anatolia, in the Caucasus Mountains, in Central Asia and in Iran, but mostly in the work of Turkic people only. Carpets decorated with the same motif are shown in the miniature painted by an unknown master around 1460 for Prince René d'Anjou's