Ardabil Carpet; a lecture by Dr. Jon Thompson

LACMA is excited to bring you this special lecture by renowned carpet expert Dr. Jon Thompson who will speak about the exciting history of the world-famous, Ardabil Carpet and its mate.

FREE to the public. No Reservations required.
About Dr. Jon Thompson
Dr. Jon Thompson is the May Beattie Fellow in Carpet Studies, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford directing the work of the Beattie Carpet Archive. He teaches courses on carpets and textiles of the Islamic world at Oxford and at the British Museum.
His publications include :
Hunt for Paradise: Court Arts of Safavid Iran 1501-1576 , edited with Sheila Canby (2003), The Nomadic Peoples of Iran edited with Richard Tapper (2002)
Carpets: From the Tents, Cottages and Workshops of Asia (1993)
Silk, Carpets and the Silk Road (1988)
Turkmen Tribal Carpets and Traditions, with Louise W. Mackie (1980).

About Ardabil Carpet:
LACMA’s spectacular Ardabil carpet was made as one of a matched pair; its mate survives and belongs to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Brought to England sometime in the late nineteenth century, the two carpets were reported to have come from the Safavid shrine at Ardabil in northwestern Iran. LACMA’s carpet is slightly smaller than its twin; its outer borders and a section of the lower field were likely removed in order to repair the carpet now in London, perhaps after the two were acquired by Vincent Robinson; Co. Robinson’s sold the larger carpet to the V&A in 1893. Shortly thereafter, the smaller carpet was purchased by Charles Tyson Yerkes, an American multimillionaire. The carpet was subsequently sold but remained in America until 1919 when it was acquired by the London-based art dealer Sir Joseph Duveen. In 1938, Duveen sold the carpet to the American oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, who kept it in his New York apartment. He subsequently brought the carpet to California and in 1953 donated it to LACMA. According to their signatures, the Ardabil carpets were made in 1539–40 by a certain Maqsud of Kashan, who prepared the designs and oversaw the project. They were almost certainly royal carpets, probably commissioned for the Safavid ruler Shah Tahmasp (r. 1524–76), presumably for his ancestral shrine at Ardabil.

Inscribed just above the signature and date of each carpet is a Persian couplet from a ghazal, or ode, by the renowned fourteenth-century poet Hafiz; it was likely chosen for quotation because the carpets may have been intended for a place of prayer. The verses heighten our appreciation even today:

I have no refuge in this world other than thy threshold
My head has no resting place other than this doorway

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Comment

Comment by Khosrow Sobhe on October 1, 2009 at 9:49am

This is going to be an exciting event. Many art and rug lovers have waited for years to see the famous Ardabil carpet on display. Don't miss this opportunity to see this splendor first hand.

Khosrow Sobhe
certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.rugidea.com
Los Angeles