Silk Medallion Rug
late 16th century
Artist
Artwork overview
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Medium
silk pile on silk warp and weft
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Credit Line
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Dimensions
overall: 240 x 173 cm (94 1/2 x 68 1/8 in.)
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Accession
1942.9.478
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
J. Pierpont Morgan [1837-1913], New York. (P.W. French & Co., New York); inheritance from Estate of Peter A. B. Widener, by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, after purchase by funds of the Estate;[1] gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] The exact date of the sale to the Widener estate is not confirmed in the Widener collection records in NGA curatorial files. The rug is listed in Edith Standen's notes on the Widener collection both as being purchased "after 1918" from P.W. French & Co., and as "bought from French (after 1924?)." According to Wilhelm R. Valentiner in a 1925 article ("Persian Silk and Animal Rug of the XVI Century," Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 6, no. 7 (April 1925): 70-72), the Widener collection owned the rug by that time, therefore the purchase was presumably between 1918 and 1925. (This footnote was not included in the provenance published in the NGA systematic catalogue entry [Little et al. 1998, 289-293]).
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1916
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, (with J. Pierpont Morgan collection), c. 1916.
1935
Exhibition of Oriental Rugs and Textiles, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1935, 19, no. 8, repro.
1940
Exhibition of Persian Art, The Iranian Institute, New York, 1940, 8, no. 6 (Guide by Phyllis Ackerman).
1947
An Exhibition of Antique Oriental Rugs, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1947, no. 15, repro.
1972
From Persia's Ancient Looms, The Textile Museum, Washington, D.C., 1972, unnumbered, repro.
Bibliography
1916
Meyer-Riefstahl, R. "Oriental Carpets in American Collections: Part One. Three Silk Rugs in the Altman Collection." Art in America 4 (April 1916): 151, 159.
1925
Valentiner, Wilhelm R. "Persian Silk Animal Rug of the XVI Century." Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 6, no. 7 (January 1925): 70.
1935
Inventory of the Objects d'Art at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, The Estate of the Late P.A.B. Widener. Philadelphia, 1935: 135-136.
1938
Pope 1938-1939, 3:2346; pl. 1197.
1945
Pope, Arthur Upham. Masterpieces of Persian Art. New York, 1945: 184, color pl. F (facing page 177). Reprinted London, 1960, and Westport, Connecticut, 1970.
1959
Dilley, Arthur U. Oriental Rugs and Carpets. New York, 1931: frontispiece and p. 64. Also 1959 ed.: frontispiece.
1961
Erdmann, Kurt. "Die kleinen Seidenteppiche Kaschans." Pantheon 19, no. 4 (1961): 159-163, fig. 3.
1963
Erdmann, Kurt. "Die kleinen Seidenteppiche Kaschans." Heimtex 15, no. 12 (1963): 25-30, fig. 8.
1966
Erdmann, Kurt. Siebenhundert Jahre Orientteppich. Herford, 1966: 143, 147-148, fig. 186.
1970
Erdmann, Kurt. Seven Hundred Years of Oriental Carpets. Edited by Hanna Erdmann. Translated by May H. Beattie and Hildegard Herzog. Berkeley, 1970: 62-64, fig. 67. (Orig. Siebenhundert Jahre Orientteppich. Zu seiner Geschichte und Erforschung. Hanna Erdmann, ed. Herford,1966.)
1972
From Persia's Ancient Looms. Exh. cat. The Textile Museum, Washington, 1972: repro.
1974
Encyclopaedia Britannica. 30 vols. 15th ed. Chicago, 1974: 16:11, fig. 2.
1987
Herrmann, Eberhart. "A Great Discovery." Hali 36 (1987): 49.
1997
Torchia, Robert Wilson. "Widener's Gift." Hali 92 (May 1997): 88-97, 120, fig. 1.
1998
Bower, Virginia, Josephine Hadley Knapp, Stephen Little, and Robert Wilson Torchia. Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings; Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1998: 289-293, color repro.
Wikidata ID
Q62268469