� THE ART OF CARPET
Acquaintance
►What is the oldest or unique carpet in your museum ? - The oldest carpets in our collection date from the XVII century . All of them are of exceptional interest not only from a historical , but also from an artistic point of view . Since there are not so many of them , I would like to give information about each . Thus , the first exhibit dated back to the XVII century was the Karabakh Dragon carpet , which was donated to our museum in 2013 by Beverly Schiltz , the widow of the famous collector , member of the Chicago Society of Oriental Carpet and Textile ( USA ) Grover Schiltz .
Since 2016 , we have been engaged in replenishment of the collection with ancient samples , establishing contacts with both collectors and auction houses . In 2017 , we managed to buy at the AUSTRIA AUCTION COMPANY a very rare , miraculously preserved entirely palace Shirvan carpet Shamakhi dated from the end of the XVII century . Carpets of this type have been kept , as a rule , in a fragmentary state . There are very few of them in the world , and they are mostly found in large museum collections . So this carpet , preserved in its entirety , is a great rarity .
In 2018 , in a private collection , we found a carpet with the famouscomposition Khatai ( Dragon ), and the Heydar Aliyev Foundation purchased it for us . Its complex composition with the spirit of the Safavid epoch , includes stylized plant and zoomorphic ornaments typical for the carpets of the Karabakh group . The classic version of the composition Khatai represents the intersecting jagged branches , creating the traditional composition Bandi-Rumi , connected by images of palmettes as a symbol of eternal life and dragons as the guardians of this eternal life . The peculiarity of our carpet is that here the image of the dragon is replaced by the tree of life .
In Shusha at that time they actively turned to ornaments of Tabriz , another geographical type of Azerbaijani carpet weaving . The whimsical floral decor of Tabriz carpets was transformed here in the mainstream of geometric ornaments characteristic of Karabakh , and their colouring , built on half-tones , was replaced by contrasting saturated colour shades in local traditions . The examples of such compositions are Balyg , Khatai , Afshan . One of the common signs of Karabakh carpets is the red background colour of the middle field . In general , their range is very bright , which is determined by the diverse flora of Karabakh . In addition to plant dyes , cochineal was actively used here .
Both pile and flat-woven carpets as well as more carpet products in comparison with other carpet weaving regions of Azerbaijan were woven here . Karabakh sheep produced high quality wool . Carpets were made both dense , with a low pile ( in mountainous areas ), and of a lower density , with a higher one ( in flat areas ). Carpets of both mountainous and flat parts of Karabakh are distinguished by their density and durability , since its warp and weft were made of the strongest and longest wool obtained from the back of thoroughbred sheep , three times combed on a special tool and polished with a metal rod for smoothness .
Another interesting Karabakh carpet is dated to the end of the XVII-XVIII centuries . This is a floral carpet with a Chelebi medallion , which is of great value for studying its composition and genesis . Before this exhibit our museum had only the XIX-century Chelebi carpets .
►Is it true that the gold fund of carpets is represented by the carpets of Karabakh ? Tell us about these carpets . Are they really special carpets ?
- Karabakh is one of the most beautiful places on the territory of Azerbaijan , historically an integral part of it , an inexhaustible storehouse of masterpieces and talents . Over the centuries , this land has become a true treasury of Azerbaijani art , primarily music , poetry and carpet weaving . The cities and villages of Karabakh were inhabited by skilled craftsmen who created beauty , which became the gold standard of its time in many crafts . Many talents lived in Karabakh , it gave the world the inspiration and skill of the poets Vagif and Natavan , the singer Khan Shushinsky , the composer Uzeyir Hajibeyli and many other artists .
Karabakh is a region rich in natural resources , consisting of a flat and mountainous part . This land has traditionally been densely populated since prehistoric times . The evidence of this is the Azykh cave , in which the jaw of a primitive man Azykhanthropus was found , the fifth find on the globe .
The climatic and natural-geographical conditions of Karabakh are extremely favorable for most agricultural activities , especially for semi-nomadic kettle breeding . For many centuries carpets woven by Karabakh weavers from high-quality soft woolen threads , spun by hand and dyed with natural dyes , fully met the needs of both semi-nomadic and sedentary residents of this fertile land , and were also exported .
In the XV-XVI centuries Karabakh carpets were massively exported to Europe . In the XVIII century , the centre of local carpet weaving moved to the mountainous part of Karabakh . Now it is the city of Shusha , with the villages adjacent to it . Of course , carpets at that time were produced in the low-lying regions of Karabakh as Jebrail , Aghdam , Barda , Fizuli . But Shusha carpets are still considered the best in this area .
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