Investigation the Presence of Lotto Carpets in Paintings of Northern Italy during the Renaissance

Farhangpour, Y.

doi:10.22051/jjh.2020.30237.1488

Investigation the Presence of Lotto Carpets in Paintings of Northern Italy during the Renaissance

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Y. Farhangpour

PhD Student in Art and Performing History, Faculty of History, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.

10.22051/jjh.2020.30237.1488

Abstract

Carpet, as a symbol of Oriental territories has always been attractive for Western countries (through history) and has arrived into these countries in various periods as gifts of kings, booty, commercial merchandise, or other means. The presence of carpet in paintings of different eras of Western art history is an interesting subject for historians of this field and researches about that started from the second half of the last century and are still expanding. This topic is very comprehensive and it can cover historical, political, economic, cultural and artistic aspects all together; and so far, it has involved many researchers in various fields around the world. By library research method and surveying the relevant documents, this article first turned to study the historical dimensions of investigations performed in this field and aside from surveying the classification of carpets present in Western paintings, which was innovated by German researchers, study their presence in the most significant works of Italian High Renaissance (1495-1600). By historical research, we can see the presence of carpets in Italian painting started from medieval Period with Giotto. So, as a very valuable topic, in the western world, there are different types of classification regarding this subject: one of the most important is the categorization related to one type of Turkish carpets (Ushak), which was suggested by Kurt Erdmann- a German art historian who specialized in Sasanian and Islamic Art- with the title of Holbine Carpets. This sorting is introduced based on the proposed theories of Luca Brancati- an Italian art historian - and Wilhelm von Bode, who was one of the pioneers of the carpet studies in western countries. The obtained results indicated that the most important and the most recognized type of carpet in the paintings of that era is Lorenzo Lotto carpet as the second subclass of Holbine carpets classification. According to performed studies, the use of this carpet in painting started in the late Renaissance and in one of the works of Sebastiano Del Piombo (Cardinal Bandinello Sauli, his Secretary and two Geographers, 1509). He was a Venetian- Italian painter; later and based on his works, the presence of Lotto carpets lasted continuously for two centuries. So if we consider that there is an unnamed painting without any information about its creator, in which the Lotto carpet is used, it can be easily concluded that it does not belong to a time prior 1509. This is an important point in western art history because there are many paintings-especially by unheard artists- which have been left uninformed. This research, after surveying the presence of this carpet in the most significant pieces of Renaissance era (examined period: 1480-1509) turned to field study by investigating the presence of carpets in some works of Federico Zeri archive. As one of the most famous archives in the world, Zeri is maintained twenty-nine thousand photos of art works some of which are unique document and the original work is not available any longer. In this archive there are some art pieces from unknown artists (especially in the international aspect). By surveying the presence of the Lotto carpets in their works, this paper has concluded that the carpet is an important and effective key term in reviewing art works, and turned to description and analysis of these works.

Keywords

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