Fit for a Palace: The Craze for Safavid Carpets in Seventeenth-century Europe

In the fifteenth century, the city of Venice was the principal gateway for the arrival of highly valued knotted-pile carpets with geometric designs from the Ottoman Empire. When the Portuguese opened the sea route to India in 1498, Asian carpets became more accessible to consumers in Europe. In Iran, the Safavids decided to seize the opportunity and capture this new overseas market. A revolution occurred in Safavid production with the rise of an urban carpet industry that reacted swiftly, embarking on innovative changes to materials, colors, designs, and dimensions to compete with cheaper Turkish carpets. In Europe, a craze ensued as the elite looked to substitute their old-fashioned geometric carpets with new floral ones, turning the floors of their palaces into gardens. In this talk, Jessica Hallett, curator of the Middle East and China at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, will address how the synergy between makers in Iran and consumers in Europe created this “craze.”

- سخنران: جسیکا هلِت

- میزبان: نگارخانۀ هنر فریر سکلر، مؤسسۀ اسمیتسونین

- زمان: ۱۵ مارس ۲۰۲۲| ۲۴ اسفند ۱۴۰۰

- اطلاعات بیشتر و ثبت نام در این سخنرانی: https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_I6w65FMNQtqOrQgSnzy17Q