The Anatolic carpet in the XIII and XIVcenturies

It is not easy to state whether Selghiucides nomad tribes who settled in new areas arrived at first in Anatolia or whether they followed the troops who settled in Persia, to which peoples they transmitted working techniques for a larger production. The setting in Minor Asia - according to the testimony of Marco Polo - seemed actually to have been already well informed  about knotted carpet: the Anatolic branch had probably preceded the Persian one. It is known from Arabian written sources (Abu el Fida,Ibn Batuta) that Turkish carpets in XIII and XIV century were exportedto Persia, to Egypt, to Syria, to Irak and even to India, to China and to other parts of the world. Actually, apart from the carpets and fragmentsin Konya, in Beyshehir and in al-Fostat, which can be dated to the same period, all through the XIII century and for a long period after wards, no further knotted samples remain, apart from a couple of exceptions. The discoveries in the Mosque of Ala-el-Din (1220) in Konya, and those in the Mosque Eshrefoglu (1289) in Beyshehir, together with the discoveries inthe old Cairo show characteristics similar to those of Minor Asian production,which alone covers the whole XIII century and beyond. Field motifs aresquares, hexagons, octagons, lozenges, stars and other small geometrical forms placed on a background whose chromatic beauty results from matching of lightly different shades of the same colour. Large hemmings are decorated with characters inspirated by kufic writing. Some kinds of carpets are also found, more or less faithfully reproduced, in paintings and this helps to classify them according to the period and the contents. The first samples found in paintings are clearly reproductions of Anatolic carpets.  There is no trace of other productions (including Persian one) all through the period up to the decay of Timuride Empire. In 1297 Giotto inserteda geometrical carpet, similar to those discovered in Konya, with Anatolic characteristics in the fresco which shows the apparition of Saint Francisto Pope Gregory IX in superior basilica in Assisi. Giotto painted similar samples also in the icon guarded in the Basilica of Saint Peter (the carpetis under Christ's feet) and in the painting, kept in the sacristy of the same church, which shows Jesus on the throne together with the Saints and where cardinal Gentileschi is kneeling on a sample decorated with octagons in which there are stylized eagles (one of the so called carpets with "armorialbearings birds"). Simone Martini (1283-1344), in a painting at the Capodimonte Museum in Naples (Saint Ludovic crowning Robert Angevin), inserted a geometrical carpet with stylized eagles under the throne. Also the carpet which in1340 Nicolo of Buonaccorso inserted in the painting called "The marriage of the Virgin", now at the National Gallery of London, shows octagons containing stylized eagles. In 1350, Lippo Memmi painted a similar sample in the "Madonna with Child", kept in Berlin (Gemaldegalerie). They are not perfect but significant calligraphic reproductions.   In 1480, Domenico Ghirlandaio painted on the throne steps, at Our Lady's feet in the "Madonna with Child, Saints and Angels", (Uffizi Gallery, Florence) a carpet very precisely reproduced. The hemming is represented by a large band, decoreted with kufik characters which bring back to the discoveries in Konya, and differentframes. At the centre of two big panels, framed and divided by a band which widen through the panels themselves, two wide star-shaped decorations canbe seen. The background is vivid red which prevails on other colours suchas black, white and yellow which variously appear. It can be said at last that during the period from the XIII century up to the first half of theXIV century, in Anatolic carpet two directions affirmed: one characterized by geometrical drawings and hemmings with kufik characters, and the other one decorated with animal figurations.