� THE ART OF CARPET
Antique Carpets
CARPETS OF THE QAJAR EPOCH
The Renaissance of the Great Past
In May 2021 , the State Museum of Oriental Art will open a large exhibition project “ Luxury of Sunset : Iran of the Qajar Epoch ”. The curator of the exhibition , Polina Korotchikova , a researcher at the department of the Near and Middle East , South and Central Asia peoples ’ art , tells about the most interesting exposition .
For the first time in Russia , more than 300 items from the richest Iranian collection of the Museum of Oriental Art will be collected in one space : paintings and miniatures , ceramics and glass , wood items and artistic metal , carpets and painted fabrics , manuscripts and weapons . The exhibition will be supplemented with historical documents from the State Archives of the Russian Federation , exhibits from the Mardzhani fund , as well as photographs from the Kunstkamera ( MAE RAS ). Most of the exhibits have never left the funds of the museum and are exhibited for the first time .
The curators set a goal to present to the public all features of the development of Iranian society in the late XVIII and early XX centuries , dividing the exposition into thematic blocks “ War and Hunt ”, “ Life and Everyday Life ”, “ Religion and Mysticism ”, “ Dynasty ” and others . Among the monuments of art presented at the exhibition , a special place is given to carpets .
The Qajar dynasty came to power in the last quarter of the XVIII century and faced with a number of economic and political problems . By the middle of the XIX century shahs managed to complete the unification of the country , but the consequences of the Russian-Persian wars , difficult relations with Britain , riots and decline in industry put Iran in a subordinate position with European countries and capital investments . At the same time , the Qajar epoch is a period of the importance and value of education and culture , the rise of extinct branches of production . But it was not without contradictory European influence , because the successes and breakthroughs in the rise of Iranian industry took place with the active assistance or under the auspices of European entrepreneurs . The most famous example is Persian carpets , whose fame by the XVIII century had passed , and the very organization of workshops on a family basis , multiplied by the labour intensity of the production of each sample , could not withstand economic realities .
But in 1873 , at the World Exhibition in Vienna , visitors got acquainted with Iranian carpets of the Safavid period , which aroused keen interest and a whole boom in carpet fashion among European consumers , and as a result among entrepreneurs . A number of companies participated in the renaissance of carpet weaving in Iran , the most famous of which is the British-Swedish Ziegler & Co . It opened its production in Sultanabad , organising a centralized system of quality control , design , and then the export of products . Soon about 10 thousand people were employed in production , and the obvious profitability led to the renaissance of the industry as a whole . Iranian manufactories opened in Tabriz , Kerman , Kashan , and Mashhad . A number of village factories appeared .
Carpet “ 108 Great Rulers of Iran and Sultan Ahmad ” @ orientmuseum
The phenomenon of this kind of factories , created to meet the needs of the European market , was a complex and two-way scheme influence on the design . When agreeing on the technical characteristics of carpets , entrepreneurs and
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