Rug

DATE:: c. 1600–1650
MATERIAL AND TECHNIQUE:: Wool
CLASSIFICATION:: Carpets
DIMENSIONS:: 128 × 59 in. (3 m 25.12 cm × 149.86 cm)
DEPARTMENT:: Decorative Arts and Design
LOCATION:: Wendy and Emery Reves Collection - Great Hall, Level 3
CREDIT LINE:: Dallas Museum of Art, The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection
OBJECT NUMBER:: 1985.R.108

General Description

The scrollwork containing griffins and urns found in this rug's borders is of Renaissance origin. But the bold baroque design used for the central panel, featuring palmettes contained in oval wreaths of foliage, was popular on 17th-century silk damask fabrics from Italy, Spain, and France. Consequently, this rug cannot date earlier than that period.

Characteristic of later Spanish production is the limited color range found in this rug. While a change in consumer taste could account for this shift, the importation of new dyestuffs, such as cochineal from the New World, as well as the exodus of skilled Jewish dyers, may also have been responsible.

Excerpt from

Dallas Museum of Art, Decorative Arts Highlights from the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection (Dallas, Texas: Dallas Museum of Art, 1995), 32.