Art Institute of Chicago

Carpet (Sileh)

Caucasus, Shirvan Provence

Date

1864

Medium

Cotton and wool, plain weave with discontinuous supplementary wrapping wefts (soumak); square braided main warp fringe

Culture

Caucasus

Department

Textiles

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

The prevalent Chinese dragon design appears on this sileh , or flat-woven soumak carpet, from the Caucasus. These geometric dragons are flying with thier tails high in the air, and the bottom extensions of the backward "S" shapes represent their lower jaws. Carpets with inscriptions and dates are extremely rare, but this example is even more remarkable beacause it was woven in one piece; the large majority of such carpets were woven in two parts. Its exceptionally rich coloring, including a wide range of blue and green tones is also an unusual feature.

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