Carpet with Star Medallions

Location: Ushak, western Anatolia, Turkey

Materials: wool pile on a wool foundation

Dimensions: 430 x 196cm

Accession Number: TXT 213

Other Notes:

Large carpets of this size appear to have been little used in 16th-century secular Ottoman buildings and many were manufactured for export to Europe. A case in point is the fresco by Hans Holbein, executed for the Palace of Westminster in 1535 depicting Henry VIII (now in the National Gallery, London), which shows him standing on such a ‘star Ushak’ carpet.

Bibliography:

J.M. Rogers, The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection, London 2010, cat.395, pp.332–3.