Alberto Boralevi

(Antique)Turkish Carpets in Italy

ISTANBUL - FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26 - 2018

Oriental Carpets, Turkish in particular, were imported in Italy since the
14th/15th centuries as we can see in paintings of the Old Masters.
For this reason scholars gave the name of painters (mostly Italian) to various
carpet groups!
In the second half of the 19th
c. great dealers, like the
Stefano Bardini (1836-1922)
started to recover and collect
them. Bardini at his death
left part of his Collection to
the town of Florence to
become a public Museum
The remaining part of the Collection went to his two sons, but none of them never
married nor had any direct heir. Ugo Bardini, the last of the two, died in 1965 and,
after a 30-years-long story, all his properties have been acquired by the Italian
Government. In 1996 I had the opportunity and the privilege of visiting the Bardini
Palace where I found about 30 antique rugs: some of them were Classical Turkish
ones. In 1999 they were exhibited in Florence for the first time during the 9th ICOC
Conference
 Today the two Bardini Collections
sum up to about 50 pieces: some
are real masterpieces. Here I will
present only the Turkish ones

Two examples of
the 17th century:
a Medallion
Ushak on the left
and
a large Selendi
with Çintamani
pattern on the
right
Though fragmented or
reduced, most examples are of
great interest and rarity, like
these two early 16th century
Small Pattern Hobeins.

The fragmented
carpet on the
right shows a
European Blazon
in the center!
The third SPH example is of the half of the
15th century and was found in the Palace, cut
and reassembled, a kind of patchwork, like
many Bardini examples
Another fragment from the same
carpet belongs to the Keir
Collection in England, having been
purchased in Florence in the
1970’s.

It is therefore possible to have an

idea of the original size and format
of this outstanding example by re-
joining it to the Florence
fragments
The most striking feature of this Bardini example is the
border showing a pattern of kufic interlace and endless
knots almost identical to the one depicted by Andrea
Mantegna in the Madonna in Trono of S.Zeno a
Verona (1457-9)
Mantegna reproduced the same rug in two other paintings: the Bridal Chamber of the
Ducal Palace in Mantua and the St. Bernardino of Siena between Two Angels, in the
Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan.
Three Lottos are preserved in the Bardini Collections
with three different border patterns, but all
belonging to the second half of 16th century
This unique example, attributed
to the 15th, c, could have come
from Central Anatolia

These two rugs, with red

ground, belong to the group
so-called Tintoretto, but in a
kind of village style.
Another 15th century fragment It was part of a saf, a
larger part of which is now preserved in the Textile
Museum of Washington

Bardini Estate, Cerreto Guidi,

Florence

Textile Museum, Washington

Transylvania Rugs with medallion or with columns
This unique and very unusual 16th
century Ushak area long rug, the second
half of which is in the Museum of
Islamic Art in Berlin, shows a design
derived from 13th/14th century Seljuk
rugs, like one preserved in TIEM Istanbul

Bardini Estate, Cerreto Guidi,

Florence
Berlin, Museum of Islamic Art
Ushak Area, late 17th c.
so-called Smyrna pattern
Stefano Bardini was a dealer,
not a collector.
Luigi Pisa (1890-1930) was
instead a rich art lover who
assembled an enormous
collection that has been
dispersed in auction after his
death. Before that he
donated two splendid Turkish
carpets to the Bargello
Museum in Florence.

The Pisa “Bird” Selendi, 490x240 cm.

Museo del Bargello, inv. V69
The Pisa Lotto, 515x260 cm.
Museo del Bargello, inv. V68
Lodovico Pogliaghi (1857-1950) was a successful artist, a sculptor who left to the Church his house
near Varese and his collection, including several carpets, to be transformed in a museum
Turkish rugs and
fragments are
the core of his
carpet
collection, that
will be soon
exhibited, but is
now closed to
public
Count Gregory Stroganoff (1829-1910) was a Russian nobleman and
an art collector who furnished his house in Rome with the finest
paintings and furniture.
In 1884 he purchased an extraordinary Medallion Ushak at the sale
of Alessandro Castellani (1823-1883), one of the most famous
Roman antique dealers and placed it in the Salon Rouge of his home.
First published by W. Von Bode in 1901,
this carpet remained whereabouts
unknown for 70 years and purchased by
Alessandro Bruschettini in 1987.
Apart from its beauty, its main design
feature is the rarest border with kufic
elements and endless knot.
It was the star of the Exhibition
Arte Ottomana 1450-1600, held in Genoa from
October 2014 till January 2015, the first organized by
the Bruschettini Foundation for Islamic and Asian Art.
Two years later it was exhibited again in:
ARTS OF THE EAST: HIGHLIGHTS OF ISLAMIC ART FROM
THE BRUSCHETTINI COLLECTION, AGA KHAN MUSEUM,
TORONTO, Sep 23, 2017 - Jan 21, 2018
The third Bruschettini Exhibition was held this year in the Palazzo
Ducale of Urbino, June 23rd – September 30th 2018
The Bruschettini Collection owes also other examples of 16th c.
Medallion Ushaks, among complete carpets and large fragments

This outstanding example, ex

Barbieri Collection, Genoa, shows an
almost unique “reverse” color
combination with light blue central
and red secondary medallions (230 x
440 cm.).
Ushak Carpets are the preferred
ones: Star Variant, 16° c.
Two Bruschettini Lottos
The earliest Anatolian examples in the Collection are a fragment
of 15th c. Animal Carpet with the Dragon & Phoenix pattern and
an even earlier fragment of the so-called ‘Tibetan’ group

Fragment of a carpet with Dragon and Phoenix

Eastern Anatolia (?), early 15th c. Size: 48 x 64 cm
Animal carpet
(98 × 198 cm; incomplete),
Anatolia, probably second half of the 14th century.
Those two fragments can be referred to two, very famous,
similar examples preserved in museums

The Bode Dragon and Phoenix Rug,

Anatolia, late 15th c. 91x61 cm.
Berlin, Museum of Islamic Art, inv. no. I.4.
The Cagan animal carpet,
Anatolia, probably late 14th c. (126x153 cm),.
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, (1990.61).
The Bruschettini Dragon and Phoenix
fragment shows a border pattern
almost identical to that in the
Domenico di Bartolo’s fresco in Siena
(around1440)
Another early fragment is this Small
Pattern Holbein with double border,
formerly in the Alexander Collection
We know very few examples of SPH with a
double border

Berlin
Washington D.C.
Fragment of a Small-Pattern Holbein carpet with
double pseudo-kufic border and quatrefoils.
W. Anatolia, 3rd quarter of the 15th c. 110 x 86 cm
This type of border, with a quatrefoil
alternated to the typical kufic interlace
appears in an Italian 15th c. painting:
the Madonna di Piazza by Lorenzo di
Credi and Andrea Verrocchio in the
Cathedral of Pistoia (1485)
A similar, border,
single as in the
painting, can be
seen in a
complete rug
formerly in the
Marino dall’Oglio
(Wher) and now
Zaleski Collection,
as well as in a
fragment of the
TIEM in Istanbul,
with a rare corner
solution.

Turkish & Islamic Art Museum, Istanbul Zaleski, ex- Wher Collection,
Dall’Oglio Ushak carpets
Other Ushak
Carpets
Holbein and Lotto
Romain Zaleski (born
1933) is a great carpet
collector. Willing to
form a Museum, last
year he promoted two
main exhibitions of his
collection, organized
by his dealer-friend
Moshe Tabibnia

Ca’ d’Oro
Venice
A triumph of Transylvania rugs in
the Foyer of the Brescia Theater,
April 15th . June 4th 2017 
The Collection contains
some true
masterpieces like a
complete Large Pattern
Holbein c14 dated to
mid 15th century and
an extraordinary
Karapinar of the 16th
century, over 6 metres
in length.
 The latest Italian appeared on the carpet scene was Federico
Cerruti (1922-2015), a refined Art Collector, specialised in 20th c.
Italian Paintings, who donated to the Rivoli Museum in Turin
about 1,000 art objects and his villa to host them

A small group of
antique rugs is part
of this Donation,
1/3 of which is
composed by early
classical Turkish
examples
Transylvania again…
To conclude, I like to show one last
example, a very unusual Melas
double prayer, of the late 18th c.

It was formerly in the Stefano

Bardini Collection and until recent
times whereabout unknown…
 FOUND!

Thank You
Grazie
Teşekkür Ederim

Author’s Collection,
Florence