 |
Note Bene:
Thoughts On The Incidence Of
"Rabbit Like"
Creatures From Persia
|
 |
Detail from a 13th century Kashan faience
tile from an anonymous collection. 1.
|
The creature on the right is what I refer to as
"rabbit like". I left the leopard in so that
you may see that they are portrayed much larger than we
would generally expect with conventional rabbit forms. It
is also odd to see a rabbit stalking a leopard. While I
am still not sure what they are meant to be I regularly
see rabbit like creatures in Persian animal carpets that
I do not normally see in Mughal or Turkish carpets. Since
this tile is pre-Mongol invasion we may assume this
design icon is an old or even indigenous design to
Persia.
What makes this important is that it would seem that
this is a design not used commonly in carpets from
outside of Persia. As such it becomes a design
attribution clue that I use to make an initial assessment
when trying to assess the probable origins of a classic
carpet. I find this works rather well with Turkish and
Mughal carpets but as yet I have not studied it enough to
assess it's potential utility with the assessment of
classical Central Asian carpets.
1. Frierman, Jay D. Medieval Ceramics VI to XIII
Centuries. (Los Angeles,Frederick S. Wight Gallery,
University of California, 1975) p. 33 il. 29
Realistic Animals
|
