Classical Turkish Carpet with the Lotto Pattern (1600–1650): Art, History and Details

Classical Turkish Carpet with the Lotto Pattern (1600–1650) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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 To preserve them, Europeans displayed Lotto carpets on tables, though they were originally made for use on the floor.

Object facts

• Title: Classical Turkish Carpet with the Lotto Pattern
• Date: 1600–1650
• Culture: Turkey, Ushak, Ottoman period
• Type: Textile
• Technique: wool: symmetrical rug knot
• Dimensions: Overall: 172.1 x 104.1 cm (67 3/4 x 41 in.)
• Collection: T - Islamic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 2015.61

A detail from the museum

Lotto carpets were depicted in some 200 paintings during the 16th century in the Netherlands.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.