This item has been added to the Database within the Explore Islamic Art Collections project. Information is available in: English, Arabic.

Name of Object:

Lotto carpet

Location:

Zurich, Switzerland

Holding Museum:

Museum Rietberg

About Museum Rietberg, Zurich

Original Owner:

Lily Gamper

Date of Object:

Hegira 11th-beginning 12th century / AD 17th-beginning 18th century

Museum Inventory Number:

RVA 864

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Wool (warp, weft and pile)

Dimensions:

Height: 178cm, Width: 125cm

Period / Dynasty:

Ottoman

Provenance:

West Turkey

Description:

In the central field, the carpet shows a network of yellow stylised arabesques arranged in crosses and octagons on a red ground. This decoration is characteristic of so-called Lotto carpets, named after the Renaissance painter Lorenzo Lotto (AD 1480-1556/57 / Hegira 885-963), who immortalised such a carpet on a famous altarpiece in 1542.

‘Lotto’ carpets usually have a border in pseudo-kufi, which is sometimes interpreted as a combination of the letters lam and alif. Here, on the other hand, it is a simple leaf tendril on a medium blue ground, which perhaps goes back to Persian models.

‘Lotto’ carpets were produced in commercial workshops in western Turkey from about 1516 to about 1700.

How date and origin were established:

By comparison with stylistically similar and approximately dated objects

How Object was obtained:

Gift from Lily Gamper

How provenance was established:

Old museum inventory.

Citation of this web page:

Axel Langer "Lotto carpet" in Explore Islamic Art Collections. Museum With No Frontiers, 2025.
https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;sw;Mus21;34;en

Prepared by: Axel Langer
Copyedited by: Jonathan Turnbull

MWNF Working Number: SW1 34