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This rug shows the finest work ever achieved by artisans under the Shahjahan reign of the Muslim dynasty in India during the 17th century. The Aynard prayer rug has a deep coloring typical of Mughal carpets, and the beautiful design is of a large flowering plant within a lobed niche. This fine workmanship is identified as representing the imperial work produced at Lahore, Pakistan. The rug, as described by Sheila Blair, and Jonathan Bloom (1994) is knotted of woolen pile on silk warps and wefts and has 174 asymmetrical knots per square centimeter, nearly thirty times as many as in the other woolen carpet (previously pictured) with animal designs. Such fine weaving, combined with the lustrous wool, the same type used in making Kashmir shawls, gives the effect of a sumptuous velvet rather than a wool rug.....
Write Blair and Bloom, "...The flowering plant became an important motif in Mughal arts and crafts from the mid-seventeenth century and can be traced in many media from architecture revetment (e.g. the marble friezes on the Taj Mahal and the fort at Agra Fort) to carpets and textiles." |
