A 'LOTTO' CARPET, WEST ANATOLIA

Purchased from Elio Cittone, Milan circa 1968

An Italian private collection

Christies, London, 7 October 2014, lot 25, purchased privately after the sale.

A ‘Lotto’ carpet with ‘Anatolian’ style field and cartouche border, of exceptional size and grandeur.

'Lotto' carpets derive their name from the Renaissance painter Lorenzo Lotto, (c. 1480 – 1556), who depicted an example in ‘The Alms of St. Anthony’, 1542, Venice, although they also appear in other and earlier works such as Sebastiano del Piombo's ‘Cardinal Bandinello Sauli’, of 1516, indicating the earliest examples are at least very early 16th century.

Whilst all these related works are termed ‘Lotto’ there are three differing types of sub design - first coined by Charles Grant Ellis in 1975, the terms ‘Kilim’, ‘Ornamented’ and ‘Anatolian’ broadly describe the relative apparent complexity of the motifs and pattern; on close analysis one can see how a subsidiary underlying repeat design of interlocking geometric shapes such as diamonds, octagons, and circles structures the pattern. The ‘Ornamented’ and ‘Anatolian’ types are agreed to be the earliest and have the least surviving examples: the present carpet employs the ‘Anatolian’ design. For a detailed discussion of the subject of substrate designs in early carpets, see Robert Pinner’s article ‘Multiple and Substrate Designs in Early Anatolian & East Mediterranean Carpets’, Hali, November – December 1988, Issue 42, pp. 23-38. For the specific review of the various ‘Lotto’ types, see Pinner, ibid., pp. 27 – 30.

Courtesy of these contemporary artworks we can, with conviction, date these highly colourful and ornate works of art. A thorough study of ‘Lotto’ carpets which appear in such paintings was conducted by John Mills, 'Lotto Carpets in Western Paintings', Hali, Winter 1981, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 278 – 289. Based on this pictorial evidence, the ‘Anatolian’ style carpets with Kufic borders appear to be the first generation of production, with the ‘Anatolian’ field combined with a cartouche border appearing in the later 16^th century. They are depicted in paintings by the very early 17^th century, in for example: Marcus Gheeraedts, 'A Woman Holding a Dove', Earl of Chichester, Stanmer Park, Mills, ibid., fig. 26; fig. 28, c. 1605. John de Critz, Anne Vavasour, 'The Armourers and Braziers of the City of London'; fig. 29, c. 1605, Robert Peake the Elder, 'Robert Sydney, 1st Earl of Leicester', Viscount de l’lsle, Penshurst Place.

The vast majority of ‘Lotto’ production was small carpets or rugs; carpets on this scale are very rare and normally when they appear on the market are fragmented, for example see the ‘Lotto’ carpet fragment, with Kufic border, but identically drawn field, from the Christopher Alexander Collection, sold Sotheby’s London, 7 November 2017, lot 122. For an example of a small carpet with the cartouche border, please see the late 16^th century example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, (308 by 174.6cm), purchased by The Seley Foundation Inc. and The Louis E. and Theresa S. Seley Foundation Inc. Gifts, 1978; Accession Number:1978.24., previously in a Private Collection, Rome (until 1977).