Ames Mughal Hunting Carpet

Indian Hunting Carpet

Lahore Circa 1595, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Mrs. Fredrick L. Ames in Memory of Fredrick L. Ames.

The age of this rug has been called into question by Ellen Smart.  Ellen also spotted that I had the image reversed.

The Ames Carpet is closely related to The Widener Mughal Animal Carpet. The art work is stylistically similar and while it may not be from the same artist but it certainly is from the same atelier at roughly the same time. Both carpets are structurally related. They share the distinctive High Ply Count Cotton Warps as well as the 3 shoots of reddish brown cotton wefts. With the close structural and artistic similarities it seems appropriate to attribute this rug to the same place and about the same time.

This carpet does not adhere as closely to the art of one artist. It is a little different than The Widener Mughal Animal Carpet in that it is not as true to form in the art it copies. This rug to be related to or even in the style of rather than attributable to Abd as-Samad. I am also trouble by the style of inclusion of a woman and child in the pavilion. While women are seen in miniatures, this depiction seems out of character. The bird in the border seems to be a less than true to life rendition of a bird we see in Mughal paintings.

Ames Carpet Technical Details

King Khusrau Hunting. An Illustration from the Khamsa of Nizami. Signed Abd as-Samad and dated 1596. British Library London. 1.

Abd as-Samad was one of the first Timurid artists recruited from the court of the Safavi Shah Tahmasp. The first Safavi Shah Ismael had transplanted the Herati Timurid school to Tabriz in about 1510. Ismael's son Tahmasp was reared in Herat where the great Herati master Bihzad stayed substantially later than most of the Herati artists. and despite periodic Ottoman invasions Tahmasp moved to Tabriz in 1522 on the death of his father and ruled (defacto regents) from Tabriz. 2. Tahmasp nurtured the creative genius of Timurid masters like Mir Mosavir and Bihzad. Even though Abd as-Samad was born in Shiraz he was trained in the strict cannons of the Herati school. So ingrained was his training that he followed that style through out the reign of Akbar to the end of his life. 2. You can see this in his rendition of the horse in this illustration. Please note the Herati thick horse bodies and short necks with fairly small head. Animals especially animals in motion do not lend them selves to as-Samad's style. The deer for instance lack that sense of motion that we see in Miskin's work. The small bushes and the treatment of the rock is one that we will see in the discussion of the Possible Origin of the Elephant Headed Monster design.

Detail from the Indian Hunting Carpet,

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Please note the similarities in the cart, the cheetah, the turban, the clothes and especially in what appears to be a jajim the cheetah is standing upon,

Detail from "King Khusrau Hunting" by Abd as-Samad.

Detail from the Indian Hunting Carpet,

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Please note the head position and the way in both the lead deer has it's head turned to the rear.

Detail from "King Khusrau Hunting" by Abd as-Samad.

Detail from the border decoration of "Officers Sitting Under A Tree". 3.

Mughal India circa 1650 - 1655. Ascribed to Payang. Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. I am not suggesting that Payang has a connection to the rug I merely am using this to show what bird I suspect they were trying to portray.

Detail from the Indian Hunting Carpet

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. This bird is not up to the standards of the rest of this rug.