The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Classical Turkish Carpet with the Lotto Pattern

Classical Turkish Carpet with the Lotto Pattern

1600–1650
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Lotto carpets were depicted in some two hundred paintings during the 16th century in the Netherlands.

Description

Lotto carpets have consistent color combinations and striking designs traceable to sources in Central Asia. In the central field, stylized yellow leaf patterns stand out against a red ground. The border is filled with cartouches on a dark blue background, and a simplified vine meanders along the outermost edge. In Islamic contexts, these vegetal patterns evoke paradise.

Made primarily for export in the western Turkish center of Ushak between the 1400s and 1600s, Lotto carpets were named after the Venetian painter Lorenzo Lotto (1480–1556), who amply documented in oil paintings the way Europeans displayed this type of Turkish carpet as a sign of wealth and prestige. To preserve them, Europeans displayed Lotto carpets on tables, though they were originally made for use on the floor.
  • June 1990-April 1991
    (John Eskenazi Ltd., London, UK, sold to a Private Collection)
    April 1991-October 2014
    Private Collection, Bologna, Italy, sold to John Eskenazi
    October 2014-2015
    (John Eskenazi Ltd., London, UK, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2015-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Islamic art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (December 21, 2016-December 4, 2017).
  • {{cite web|title=Classical Turkish Carpet with the Lotto Pattern|url=false|author=|year=1600–1650|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2015.61