Janus Pannonius Múzeum Évkönyve 43 (1998)( Pécs, 1999)

Művészettörténet - Batári Ferenc: A Baranya Megyei Múzeumok keleti szőnyegei

BATÁRI F.: A BARANYA MEGYH MÚZEUMOK KELETI SZŐNYEGEI 299 Oriental carpets in the Museums о Ferenc The primary task of museums is to make the museal treasures in their collections accessible and known to the research work. To our present knowledge the most adequate form of publishing art objects is still the "catalogue raisonné", a comprehensive and classified assessment of a collection. Our present prublication describes a group of objects relatively small in numbers but completely unified in type: the oriental carpets of the 17th to 19th centuries. Carpets constitute a particular genre of oriental art and already in the Middle Ages had made their conquest of Europe. In certain countries where a direct commercial contact with the Orint had been maintained as for example in Italy, the Netherlands, Poland etc. and last, but not least in Hungary the oriental carpets, in the first place the Ottoman Turkish ones, had become the most characteristic piece of decoration in the old-time Hungarian homes during the 16th—17th centuries. In consequence, even today Hungary remained one of the richest repositories of the ancien Ottoman Turkish carpet art. The most significant Hungarian carpet collection is being conserved in the Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest, the material of that collection ranks second richest after the one in the Istambul Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art. A sizable collection may be found in the Hungarian National Museum and in the Christian Museum of Esztergom, followed by the Otto Herman Museum in Miskolc and the Museums of Baranya County. Two local museums are sharing the collection of Baranya County, which numbers 32 pieces. 10 pieces are kept in the Janus Pannonius Museum of Pécs, the majority of the collection coming from contributions from generous donators - and the collection of the Miklós Zrínyi Museum of Szigetvár numbers 14 pieces. This is less than the possession of Pécs, but all of them are classical pieces and the ensemble is a result of a conscious collecting work. Among the 32 carpets 28 are made by knotting technique, the rest of 4 pieces are made by the slitt-kilim technique. The carpet patterning is very diversified. Nos. 1-4 are A szerző címe - Author's address: Dr. Ferenc ВАТАМ H-1093 Budapest Üllői út 33-37. Museum of Applied Arts f Baranya County (South Hungary) BATÁRI pertaining to the opposed-arch "Transylvanian" carpets. While this type is richly represented in Hungary, in foreign collections including the Turkish ones, it occurs only rarely. The classic Gördes prayer rug type is represented by five items (Nos. 5-9). In both form and desing, the runner (No. 10) counts as a rarity: the middle field decorated a row of smaller medallions and hyacinth flowers, is closed at the two ends by the depictions of a prayer niche (mihrab). The multiple niche prayer rugs, or safs (Nos. 12-13) functioned to arrange in orderly lines the people gathering for prayer in the mosque. The rest of the items represent the more common types of Gödres, Kula and Mucur prayer rugs. The examples of Anatilian flat woven carpets (Nos. 22-25) display rich variety and as a result of the waeving technique their patterns are geometric in character. On the Persian material, particularly noteworthy are the unusual motifs of stylized human heads on the sections decorating the two ends of the mid-medallion of carpet No. 27. On carpet No. 32 the pattern of reciprocated lines of lilies filling the middle field may also be classified as an unusual carpet design. With respect to the provenience of the carpets, several items are of interest in a local aspect: carpets No. 3, 5, 25 and 27 belonged to the collection of the Zsolnay family, the world-famous ceramic artists from Pécs. The condition of the collection, unfortunately, is unsatisfactory. Nearly all the carpets require restoration. Regrettably, to date only two items, carpets No. 6 and 15 have been restored. Oriental carpets, as implied above, have always enjoyed great respect in Hungary, and in fact were so organic a part of old Hungarian home culture that they were felt to be completely indigenous thereto. However, this "expropriation" carries with it a measure of obligation. If future generations are to marvel as much as we have at these splendid products of Oriental creativity, the restoration of these items is an urgent task for the near future, justified not only by the museal worth of these carpets, but also their high material value.