AN OTTOMAN VOIDED SILK VELVET AND METAL-THREAD PANEL (ÇATMA) WITH CARNATIONS, BURSA OR ISTANBUL, EARLY 17TH CENTURY

Sold in these rooms, 26 April 2017, lot 140.

Ex-collection Argine Benaki Salvago, Alexandria and Greece.

Treasures from the Al Thani Collection: Masterpieces from a Royal Collection, Palace Museum, Beijing, 17 April 2018-17 June 2018.

Treasures from the Al Thani Collection: Masterpieces from a Royal Collection, Palace Museum, Beijing, exh. cat.2018, pp.438-9, cat. no.169, illus. p.439.

These large çatma panels, typically with a narrow geometric inner frame and an endless repeating design which extends beneath this frame, are thought to have been used either as wall hangings, curtains or as covers for divan. This panel is in the 'quatre-fleurs style' named for the four most commonly used flowers: the tulip, hyacinth, rose and the carnation, all closely associated with the Ottoman Court. The carnation (karanfil) was one of the most beloved floral motifs of the Ottomans and by the end of the 16th century it had developed into the serrated fan-shaped carnation palmette motif known as the 'fan' pattern, or yelpazeli. Contemporaneous records show that the silk weaving ateliers of Bursa and Istanbul were carefully monitored by the Ottoman Court, the number of looms and the usage of precious metals was strictly controlled and workshops producing anything but the highest quality of textiles were forcibly closed down. It would follow that the designs were also closely monitored and that weavers and designers were forced to follow strict guidelines as to form and content and could, therefore, only show their creativity and inventiveness within a very narrow remit. 

With a limited number of ornaments and a restricted range of colour the Ottoman textile designers were able to achieve impressive versatility using barely perceptible changes and by constantly modifying composition and using alternative combinations of motifs.  They were able to ensure that within the considerable number of silks with offset rows of carnations that are extant, there are very few identical examples. Carnations have five, seven or even nine petals, they may have variations of floral sprays within each petal or none; the root, leaf and secondary palmette motifs have minute permutations and subtle changes. Although crimson velvet is the dominant colour, green, blue, ivory and yellow detailing can be used along with endless variations within the placement and usage of gilt and silver metal thread. 

Two close examples in design with the plain seven petalled carnation, and the same slight variation in the sepal and calyx design incorporating a small tulip motif and three foliate stem, are two-loom width panels, from Bursa, first half seventeenth century, one in the Mevlana Museum Konya, 156 by 125cm (Inv.no.615 – originally offered as a gift to the shrine of Mevlana Jalal al-din Rumi in Konya), and another of the same date, in the National Museum, Cracow, 169 by 125cm (Inv.no.XIX-4525). Two other parallel two-loom width panels are in the Calouste Gulbenkian Collection, Lisbon, Inv. Nos.1384 & 1425, see Un jardin encantado, Arte islámico en la Colección Calouste Gulbenkian, (ex. cat.), 2001, pp.144-5, no.57 and Islamic Art in the Calouste Gulbenkian Collection, (ex. cat.) Lisbon, 2004, p.115, no.49.