Cleveland Museum of Art

Classical Turkish Carpet with the Lotto Pattern

Date

1600–1650

Medium

wool: symmetrical rug knot

Culture

Turkey, Ushak, Ottoman period

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Lotto carpets have consistent color combinations and striking designs traceable to sources in Central Asia. In the central field, stylized yellow leaf patterns stand out against a red ground. The border is filled with cartouches on a dark blue background, and a simplified vine meanders along the outermost edge. In Islamic contexts, these vegetal patterns evoke paradise. Made primarily for export in the western Turkish center of Ushak between the 1400s and 1600s, Lotto carpets were named after the Venetian painter Lorenzo Lotto (1480–1556), who amply documented in oil paintings the way Europeans displayed this type of Turkish carpet as a sign of wealth and prestige. To preserve them, Europeans displayed Lotto carpets on tables, though they were originally made for use on the floor. Lotto carpets were depicted in some 200 paintings during the 16th century in the Netherlands.

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