Publication Date
700- 823/ 1300- 1420
Publication Place
-
Marby Church, Jämtland
Subject
Knotted wool.
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Physical Dimensions
الارتفاع: 160سم؛ العرض: 112سم
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Library Asset ID
SHM 17 786
Record ID
object;ISL;se;Mus01_A;35;ar
Library Location
National Archeology Museum
Date
700- 823/ 1300- 1420
Notes
This carpet is one of the few examples found in Sweden that belongs to a carpet-making tradition from the early Ottoman period in Anatolia. This carpet, known as the Marby Carpet, was found in 1925 in an abandoned church in Marby, a village in the Jämtland region, and is the oldest oriental carpet preserved in Sweden. It was cut into two parts. The rug, which belongs to the group of rugs with animal figurative motifs, shows abstract red birds standing symmetrically on either side of a tree in octagons on an ivory ground. Birds and trees have been known for a long time, and were widespread in Central Asia. It seems that carpets with animal figurative decorations that include the tree and the two birds surrounding it were popular during the fourteenth century, when compared to similar Italian paintings dating back to this period, but they reached the peak of their production and exchange during the first half of the ninth / fifteenth century. The importance of finding this carpet in a village in the province of Jämtland, Sweden, stems from the fact that it indicates that export was not limited to Italy, but even reached the Baltic region. Carpets with animal figurative motifs disappeared around the late 9th / 15th century. In addition to the Marbi carpet, there are some pieces bearing birds surrounding the tree from Fustat, Egypt, and there are two complete carpets in good artistic condition. The first was found in a church in Italy, and is today in the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin, Germany. The second was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1990.
Sample Text
Friederike Voigt “Marbe Carpet” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;se;Mus01_A;35;ar
