Oriental Carpets: Their Iconology and Iconography from Earliest Times to the 18th Century

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This publication traces and analyses the art of the oriental carpet over a period of two and a half thousand years. The author's research has resulted in completely new contextual insights amounting to nothing less than a revision of the history of the oriental carpet. He has been able to trace patterns back to Phrygian and other traditions, which survived in the work of Armenian craftsmen up to the beginning of our own century: carpets as symbols of power and as deeply religious abstract textile icons.

The oriental carpet is neither of nomadic origin, nor do its origins lie in central Asia; it is a product of ancient oriental civilizations in the Armenian uplands at the crossroads of the oldest trade routes between west, north and south. The author's assertion is supported by an unprecedented wealth of full-colored illustrations showing the finest and most important examples of the art of the carpet. The illustrations include book illumination, painting, decorative art and architectural details and elucidate previously unknown developments.