Maqsud of Kashan | Carpet from the funerary mosque of Shaykh Safi al-DinArdabil, Iran, 1540&nbs
Maqsud of Kashan | Carpet from the funerary mosque of Shaykh Safi al-DinArdabil, Iran, 1540 Maqsud of Kashan’s enormous Ardabil carpet required roughly 25 million knots. It presents the illusion of a heavenly dome with mosque lamps reflected in a pool of water with floating lotus blossoms.(Read More Now doesnt work here) Shah Tahmasp, a Safavid ruler elevated carpet weaving to a national industry and set up royal factories at Isfahan, Kashan, Kirman, and Tabriz. Two of the masterworks of carpet weaving that date to his reign are the pair of carpets from the two-centuries older funerary mosque of Shaykh Safi al-Din, the founder of the Safavid line. The name Maqsud of Kashan is woven into the design of the carpet illustrated here He must have been the designer who supplied the master pattern to two teams of royal weavers.The carpet, almost 35 x 18 feet, consists of roughly 25 million knots, some 340 to the square inch. (Its twin has even more knots.) The design consists of a central sunburst medallion, representing the inside of a dome, surrounded by 16 pendants. Mosque lamps (appropriate motifs for the Ardabil funerary mosque) are suspended from two pendants on the long axis of the carpet. The rich blue background is covered with leaves and flowers attached to delicate stems that spread over the whole field. (x) -- source link
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