TAPIS USHAK MÉDALLION

Les exemples les plus anciens et les plus beaux de ces tapis ont été tissés pour le marché des riches maisons ottomanes même si leur reproduction dans des peintures européennes durant le XVIe siècle par des artistes tels que Velasquez, Zurbaran et Vermeer, illustre leur plus large diffusion. (D. King et D. Sylvester, The Eastern Carpet in the Western World from the 15th to the 17th Century, Londres, 1983, p.73). Au XVIIe siècle on trouve des preuves d’un marché d’exportation conséquent grâce à des sources textuelles, mais aussi grâce au nombre de tapis qui ont été conservés aussi bien dans les églises italiennes, espagnoles et portugaises que dans les grandes maisons européennes.

The earliest and best examples of these carpets were woven for the wealthy Ottoman home market, however their depiction in some European paintings during the sixteenth century by artists such as Velasquez, Zurbaran and Vermeer illustrates their wider appeal (D. King and D. Sylvester, The Eastern Carpet in the Western World from the 15th to the 17th Century, London, 1983, p.73). By the 17th century there is evidence of a substantial export market in Europe, both from textual sources and from the number of carpets which have survived in Italian, Spanish and Portugese churches and large European country houses.