Wool (warp, weft, and pile), symmetrically knotted pile rug L.
65 in. (165.1 cm), W. 54 1/2 in. (138.4 cm) Purchase, Harris
Brisbane Dick Fund, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, Louis V. Bell and
Fletcher, Pfeiffer and Rogers Funds, 1990 (1990.61) When this
rug was discovered, its unusual field design—rows of animals
within animals—was otherwise known only in a rug depicted in a
Sienese painting of about 1410, The Marriage of the Virgin by
Gregorio di Cecco di Luca (National Gallery, London). The
pattern of the painted version, partially obscured by standing
figures, was not comprehensible without the Metropolitan's rug.
The field design probably derives from medieval textiles
patterned with single or paired animals in compartments. This
purchase, hailed in rug-collecting circles, brought to the
Museum one of the best preserved, earliest Turkish carpets in
the world. Only two other carpets of a similar date are known.