Holbein carpet

Research literature calls the type of early Ottoman carpets adorned with infinite geometric arabesques typically present in the German painter Hans Holbein the Younger’s (1497/98–1543) paintings Holbein carpets. Two kinds of ornament are known in the fields of the Holbein carpets: the large pattern and the small pattern. The most famous specimen of the Holbein carpets embellished with infinitely repeated tiny patterns is in Holbein’s Portrait of the Merchant Georg Gisze painted in London in 1532 (Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie). The central field of these carpets is filled with two alternating motifs strung up on vertical and horizontal axes on a dark blue, dark green or rarely on a red ground: one motif is an octagon framed by a braided interlace (Holbein-göl) and the other is a cruciform four-lobe medallion with arabesque pattern. The border of the field is usually a Kufic frieze composed of the stylized Arabic Kufi characters. From the two small-pattern Holbein carpets in the Museum of Applied Arts this one with the red ground – itself a rarity – is unique in its completeness, with only its lower edge having been formerly complemented. Its proportionate motifs and harmonious colour pairs – the red field in a light frame and the green complementary colours of the arabesque grid, as well as the line of gol motifs with light centres – produce a calm and balanced effect.