Early Anatolian animal carpets
Radiocarbon dating confirmed that the "Dragon and Phoenix" carpet was woven in the mid 15th century, during the early Ottoman Empire.
Its field is parted into two rectangular sections, each containing a yellow-ground octagon in which a Chinese dragon and a phoenix are opposed to each other in combat.
The rectangular fields are surrounded by a small guardian border showing a row of pearls in different colours.
The main border has red floral tendrils composed of identical, S-like ornaments on a brown ground.
One of these carpets was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art[8] which parallels a painting by the Sienese artist Gregorio di Cecco: "The Marriage of the Virgin", 1423.
[10] Another animal carpet with a coarser design compared to the Vakıflar rug is at the Mevlana Museum in Konya (Balpınar, 1988, p. 62[10]).
The Batári-Crivelli fragment resembles the "Dragon and Phoenix" and "Marby" rugs in having a yellow ground and two large medallions as the main element of design.
Chromatographic analysis of the dyes revealed yellow from an undefined plant, indigo blue, madder (Rubia tinctorum) red, a blue green derived from indigo, Dyer's weed (Reseda luteola), and Dyer's sage (Salvia fruticosa), dark brown and undyed, ivory wool.
[11] During the 13th International Congress of Turkish Art, held in Budapest on 3 September 2007, the fragment was renamed in honour of Ferenc Batári, the late curator of the carpet and textile department of the museum.
This marks the beginning of the "ante quem" method, which was subsequently further elaborated by the "Berlin School" of History of Islamic Art.
The illustrated rugs are generally drawn by the early Renaissance painters in a simplified manner, compared to the original carpet designs.
Each compartment contains an octagon, which in turn contains animal figures of four types: At the beginning of the 14th century, carpets with stylized single- or double-headed eagles appear.
A carpet fragment with a single bird with its head turned is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
A fresco in the Palais des Papes at Avignon, by Matteo di Giovanni depicts a carpet with rather indistinct bird figures in front of the Pope's throne.
Written sources of the 14th century indicate that Pope Benedict XII very much liked a carpet with "white swans", which he had set before his throne.
A painting by Giovanni di Paolo, 1440, shows an Anatolian animal style rug with birds spread before the pope's throne (Yetkin, 1981, p. 33, ill. 5 and 6[12]).
A rug in the Konya Archaeological Museum, dated to the 15th century, represents an original from this group (Yetkin, 1981, p. 31, plate 20[12]).
A painting by Jaume Huguet in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya contains a nearly identical rug.
Similar rugs can be seen in a painting by Giovanni di Paolo in the Doria Pamphilj Gallery, Rome, and in "Madonna enthroned" by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (Yetkin, 1981, p. 34, ill. 7 and 8[12]).
The Pergamon Museum's "Phoenix and Dragon" finds its painted counterparts in Domenico di Bartolo's "The Marriage of the Foundlings" (1440) shows a very similar rug, as well as Alesso Baldovinetti's "Tale of Saint Vincenzo Ferrerio", and Jacopo Bellini's "Annunciation".
The Vakıflar Museum's animal carpet has a painted counterpart in William Larkin's "Portrait of Dorothy Cary, later Viscountess Rochford".
