Spanish Carpet with a Turkish Pattern (c. 1450–1500): Art, History and Details

Spanish Carpet with a Turkish Pattern (c. 1450–1500) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Muslim weavers in Spain manufactured colorful woolen carpets with patterns derived from native Iberian designs, luxury silks, and imported Turkish carpets, such as this rare example. It is the only known carpet with this pattern of octagons framing a radiating central star. It is related to so-called large-pattern Holbein carpets, named after the Flemish painter Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543) who represented them in his paintings. This relatively well preserved 15th-century carpet is said to have come from a convent in Spain.

Object facts

• Title: Spanish Carpet with a Turkish Pattern
• Date: c. 1450–1500
• Culture: Spain, Alcaraz?, Mudejar, 15th century
• Type: Carpet
• Technique: wool, knotted pile: Spanish knot
• Dimensions: Overall: 418.8 x 236.1 cm (164 7/8 x 92 15/16 in.)
• Collection: Textiles
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1952.511

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Ferrandis Torres, José. 1942. "Alfombras hispano-moriscas "Tipo Holbein". Archivo Español De Arte / Consejo Superior De Investigaciones Científicas, Departamento De H. Del Arte "Diego Velaźquez", Centro De Estudios Históricos. 103-111.
• Shepherd, Dorothy G. "A Fifteenth-Century Spanish Carpet." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 41, no. 8 (1954): 188-90.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

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.