Contadini, Anna

English

SOAS Research Online

Oriental Rugs in Renaissance Florence.By Marco Spallanzani. 281 pp. incl. 101 col.ills. (The Bruschettini Foundation for Islamicand Asian Art, Textile Studies I, S.P.E.S.,Florence, 2007), £80. ISBN 978–88–7242–3141.Reviewed by ANNA CONTADINISchool of Oriental and African Art, LondonMUCH HAS BEEN written about the trade inOriental rugs in Europe – in Italy in particu-lar – using documentary and visual sources toidentify types. Marco Spallanzani’s book takesthe study of the trade to a higher level ofprecision and insight. It focuses on Florencefrom the fourteenth century to the sixteenth,and in a systematic way treats issues relating tosupply and demand: importation, distribution,the range of customers, prices and sizes, func-tions and taste. It is a distillation of knowledgethat comes from years of patient archivalstudy, analysing hundreds of different types ofdocument, from inventories to letters, frombills of lading [please explain] to records ofexcise duty. The author uses visual evidence,and the book is beautifully illustrated incolour with depictions, mainly by Florentinepainters, of scenes in which carpets, rugs andcovers appear. The combination of documen-tary and visual sources, rigorously analysed,makes this book a fundamental study of thesubject. Despite the dense factual content, the writ-ing is of exemplary clarity and a pleasure toread, even when the author tackles complexproblems of terminology, for example, theinterpretation of words such as carpita, copertaand tappeto (pp.3–5). In the Introduction, doc-umentary and visual sources are interwoven toclarify terms and types. Spallanzani also dealswith the problem of the interpretation ofvisual sources (pp.6–7), concluding that theseare helpful only when they correspond to anidentifiable, existing object; when they do notit should be assumed that the textile is thefantasy of the painter and cannot be attributedto a local manufacturer, given the absence ofdocumentary evidence of the manufacture inthe West of rugs in an oriental style.The next section, on supply, gives a lucidsummary of the various routes by whichoriental merchandise reached Florence.Venice was a particularly important port; fromthere specialised carrier companies wouldorganise transport by sea or along the Po toFerrara and on by boat to Bologna, where thegoods would be transferred to pack animals tomake the crossing of the Apennines toPlease correct and return immediately toThe Editorial Office, THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE14–16 Duke’s Rd, London WC1H 9SZTel: 020–7388–8157   Fax: 020–7388–1230   E-mail: editorial@burlington.org.ukFlorence. But Florentine merchants also madeuse of Ancona, while other shipments camevia the Tyrrhenian ports of Genoa and Pisa.This section also covers the transactionsinvolved and the trading networks set up andmanned by Florentine merchants and theiragents. The presence of a Florentine colony inConstantinople soon after the city fell in 1453reflected the increasingly favourable tradingcircumstances there, and in the fifteenth cen-tury Turkish rugs, some from Bursa, becomea significant element of Levantine trade. Oncein Florence, they were distributed through acomplex mercantile network that catered forvarious categories of customer. Around the mid-fifteenth century demandfor imported Eastern goods increased and inthe latter half of the century the Medicibecame the most important buyers. But suchwas the variety of rugs that they were not thepreserve of patrician families and the churchalone: more modest individuals are alsorecorded as owners. The next section pro-vides insights into the relationship betweenthe price and size of rugs, the comparativecosts of other artefacts and the amount oflabour required to earn the sums involved.While good quality small rugs could cost threeto four florins, larger ones could cost twice asmuch, yet at the time of Lorenzo il Magnificopieces of rare Chinese porcelain (celadon orblue and white) were surprisingly less expen-sive, costing on average one to two florinsapiece. Clothing was much more expensive:gold and silver thread was woven into silktextiles, and the cost of a gold brocadegarment for ceremonial occasions might costone hundred or even two hundred goldflorins. While a labourer might need to workfor up to three months to earn the price of asmall oriental rug, for an artisan, let alonethose better off, even medium-size rugs wereaffordable. The section on function outlines thevarious uses to which the rugs were put –mainly to cover benches, tables, lettucci ormoneychangers’ counters. Rugs were notnormally used to cover the floor, except whenplaced around a bed, a custom that seems tohave increased over time. Those that aredepicted beneath the Virgin’s feet should beregarded as indicating a sacred space where nomortal feet should step. The final section, on taste, attempts thedifficult task of filling the gap left by thepaucity of surviving rugs by carefully siftingdocumentary and iconographic evidence torecapture the Florentine taste in rugs. Exactlywhat weight of interpretation such evidencecan bear is arguable, but what does emerge isthe overwhelming popularity of Turkish rugswith the motif of a repeated wheel pattern (a ruote) that have long been labelled Holbeinrugs; they were so fashionable that onecustomer, wanting variety, insisted ‘non glivoglio a ruote’ (p.63).The text is followed by a substantial(pp.75–145) section presenting the documentsupon which the analysis is based, and this inturn is followed by the dazzling array ofcolour reproductions of Florentine paintings,arranged chronologically, with among themplates of the surviving carpets, including asplendid Anatolian Lotto rug. The design andproduction of the volume is exemplary, doingjustice to an outstanding piece of research thatsets new standards of scholarly precision andinsight in this field.

Review of Marco Spallanzani, Oriental Rugs in Renaissance Florence. Florence: S.P.E.S., 2007

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