Ghirlandaio Cloudband Rug from Terry Loychuk

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Hi Barry::::Christian theology and philosophy in art.

In researching this piece, I went to your website under classical carpets to the section on Ghirlandaio. Your comments regarding the evolutionary development of this distinctive medallion made me want to look deeper. Volkmar Gantzhorn in his book, benignly titled, ORIENTAL CARPETS presents his very esoteric and hotly debated thesis that Christian Oriental carpets existed long before the Islamic culture made its appearance and at that creative pre-Islamic genesis were the Christian Armenians. He also discusses the philosophical and religious iconography of the Ghirlandaio medallion. The square he says represents the earth and the diamond represents the heavens. [or two different powers ] . He calls it a "cosmogram" or world view. The fact that he is at least naming the shapes is a step in the right direction. I would like to use this dissection of the medallion into two distinct element to examine the different ideas projected by their historically confused/different positional relationships to one another as well as offer a solution to one of the mysteries attached to the painters work.
When Ghirlandaio painted his picture MADONNA ENTHRONED he was working for the church and was obliged to amplify its current doctrine. In the matter of translating the original design of the medallion he chose to reverse it. He put the diamond over the square because according to church doctrine one can only see the earth through heaven. Heaven occults the earth. Ghirlandaio model reg medallions were probably the reverse of the ones he actually painted, as in James A. Lucas' "Ghirlandaio" and my humble example. Here we see the diamond shape in the background covered by the square of the earth. In this case we have direct access to the earth with the heavenly spheres or "cosmos" in the background suggesting a powerful recognition of "earthy man" mediating heaven. An order or icon considered heresy in the medieval Christian Church until Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation. It would not be until Martin Luther put "grace" into the equation and made Christ human like all people that the two disparate "world views" [or two different versions of the Ghirlandaio medallion], found equal and opposing opportunity in the larger Christian community.
I suggest that Ghirlandaio did not blindly copy the medallion exactly as it appear on the model carpet but modified it to comport with the churches current world view.
The rug in the painting is in a very important sense [i.e. medallions] a fiction, a figment of the artists imagination and therefore no surprise when another like it has never surfaced. Makes perfect sense to me because there never was one.
Thanks TERRY