Attributed to northern India, Kashmire or Lahore, India / Fragments of a carpet / ca. 1650

Attributed to northern India, Kashmire or Lahore, India
Fragments of a carpet
ca. 1650
View Larger Image

View Full Catalog Record Below

This image is one of over 108,000 from the AMICA Library (formerly The Art Museum Image Consortium Library- The AMICO Library™), a growing online collection of high-quality, digital art images from over 20 museums around the world. www.davidrumsey.com/amica offers subscriptions to this collection, the finest art image database available on the internet. EVERY image has full curatorial text and can be studied in depth by zooming into the smallest details from within the Image Workspace.

Preview the AMICA Library™ Public Collection in Luna Browser Now

Cultures and time periods represented range from contemporary art, to ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian works.
Types of works include paintings, drawings, watercolors, sculptures, costumes, jewelry, furniture, prints, photographs, textiles, decorative art, books and manuscripts.

Gain access to this incredible resource through either a monthly or a yearly subscription and search the entire collection from your desktop, compare multiple images side by side and zoom into the minute details of the images. Visit www.davidrumsey.com/amica for more information on the collection, click on the link below the revolving thumbnail to the right, or email us at amica@luna-img.com .

Creator Qualifier: Attributed to
Creator Nationality: Asian; Indian Sub-Continent; Indian
Creator Active Place: Northern India, Kashmire or Lahore
Creator Name-CRT: Attributed to northern India, Kashmire or Lahore, India
Title: Fragments of a carpet
Title Type: Object name
View: Full View
Creation Start Date: 1640
Creation End Date: 1660
Creation Date: ca. 1650
Object Type: Textiles
Materials and Techniques: Pashmina wool and silk; pile weave, pashmina wool pile on silk foundation, 1,023 asymmetrical knots per square inch
Dimensions: W. 55 1/4 in. (140.3 cm), L. 155 3/4 in. (395.6 cm)
AMICA Contributor: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Owner Location: New York, New York, USA
ID Number: 14.40.723
Credit Line: Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913
Rights: http://www.metmuseum.org/
Context:

This fragmentary carpet represents the highest level of Indian production, what might be called imperial grade. It looks and feels like velvet, but the pile is actually knotted from pashmina wool, made from the fleece of Himalayan mountain goats. The weave is extremely fine, especially for a carpet as large as this one must have been. What remains is approximately one quarter of the original. In most Islamic cultures the finest carpets were woven in silk. Only in India was wool, admittedly a very special wool, prized more than silk. The style of this carpet, with its total reliance on floral forms, is consistent with the taste of the emperor Shah Jahan, as manifested also in the architectural decoration and manuscript margin illumination created by the gifted artists of his court.

AMICA ID: MMA_.14.40.723
AMICA Library Year: 2000
Media Metadata Rights: Copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art

AMICA PUBLIC RIGHTS: a) Access to the materials is granted for personal and non-commercial use. b) A full educational license for non-commercial use is available from Cartography Associates at www.davidrumsey.com/amica/institution_subscribe.html c) Licensed users may continue their examination of additional materials provided by Cartography Associates, and d) commercial rights are available from the rights holder.