Carpets and Rugs
Carpets and rugs are a form of art which is central to the artistic identity of the region. It is known that in the tenth century dyed fabrics and rugs from Artsakh were highly valued in the Arab world. Two accounts by the historian Kirakos Gandzaketsi mention embroideries and altar curtains handmade by his contemporaries Arzou and Khorishah—two princesses of the House of Upper Khachen (Haterk/Հաթերք)—for the Dadivank Monastery. In the 19th century, local rugs and samples of natural silk production became part of international exhibitions and art fairs in Moscow, Philadelphia and Paris.
The abundance of rugs produced in the modern period is rooted in this solid ancient tradition. Indeed, recent research has begun to highlight the importance of the Armenian region of Artsakh in the history of a broader group of rugs classified as "Caucasian." Woven works by Artsakh’s Armenians come in several types. Rugs in an "eaglebands" (Armenian: արծվագորգ/artzvagorg) or "sunburst" (Armenian: արևագորգ/arevagorg) pattern, a sub-type of Armenian rug featuring dragons, whose manufacturing center from the eighteenth century was Artsakh's county of Jraberd, have characteristically large radiating medallions. Other rugs come with ornaments resembling serpents (“serpentbands;” Armenian: օձագորգ/odzagorg) or clouds with octagonal medallions comprising four pairs of serpents in an “S” shape, and rugs with a series of octagonal, cross-shaped or rhomboid medallions, often bordered by a red band.
Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh is also the source of some of the oldest rugs bearing Armenian inscriptions: the rug with three niches from the town of Banants (1602), the rug of Catholicos Nerses of Aghvank (1731), and the famous Guhar (Gohar) Rug (1700). It should also be added that most rugs with Armenian inscriptions come from Nagorno Karabakh.
Read more about this topic: Culture Of Nagorno-Karabakh
Famous quotes containing the words carpets and and/or carpets:
“The heart of Paris is like nothing so much as the unending interior of a house. Buildings become furniture, courtyards become carpets and arrases, the streets are like galleries, the boulevards conservatories. It is a house, one or two centuries old, rich, bourgeois, distinguished. The only way of going out, or shutting the door behind you, is to leave the centre.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“The heart of Paris is like nothing so much as the unending interior of a house. Buildings become furniture, courtyards become carpets and arrases, the streets are like galleries, the boulevards conservatories. It is a house, one or two centuries old, rich, bourgeois, distinguished. The only way of going out, or shutting the door behind you, is to leave the centre.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)