'Lotto' Carpet Fragment

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Carpets displaying this striking design of stylized vegetal arabesques in yellow on a red ground are often called "Lotto" carpets after a famous altarpiece by Italian Renaissance painter Lorenzo Lotto that depicts a similar carpet. While the earliest examples of carpets using this design probably date from before 1500, the design remained popular for several centuries, and large numbers were exported to Europe, where they frequently appeared in paintings. Early examples of Lotto carpets exhibit pseudo-calligraphic borders like the one seen here. Thought to derive from a rectilinear form of Arabic script known as kufic, this type of interlaced border is characteristic of many early Turkish carpets.

'Lotto' Carpet Fragment, Wool (warp, weft, and pile); symmetrically knotted pile

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'Lotto' Carpet Fragment, Wool (warp, weft, and pile); symmetrically knotted pile
'Lotto' Carpet Fragment, Wool (warp, weft, and pile); symmetrically knotted pile
'Lotto' Carpet Fragment, Wool (warp, weft, and pile); symmetrically knotted pile
'Lotto' Carpet Fragment, Wool (warp, weft, and pile); symmetrically knotted pile

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