CENTRAL SPAIN, LATE 15TH CENTURY

The Spanish 'Holbein' or 'Wheel' Fragment offered here is a product of a commercial industry which existed in Alcaraz in the fifteenth century, much of the design inspiration for which was provided by carpets from Anatolia. These latter were available, although extremely costly, in Europe by the fourteenth century. This development of the European market is well documented in the 1983 Hayward Gallery exhibition catalogue (J.King, and D.Sylvester, The Eastern Carpet in the Western World, London, 1993. figs. 18-20). A favoured type to be copied were 'large pattern Holbein' carpets in all their variety. The fragment offered is one of a group referred to by Dimand and Mailey as being the third variety of Spanish 'Holbein' carpets which often comprise large multiple repeats of these 'wheel' motifs. Several of this group are reputed to have come from the Convent of Santa Ursula in Guadalajara. Other rugs from this group differ in details of the design and in the number of squares (M.S.Dimand and Jean Mailey, Oriental Rugs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, 1973, pp.254-258). For further examples of this group see J.Fernandes-Torres, Exposicion de Alfombras Antiguas Espanolas, exhibition catalogue, Madrid, 1933, and J.Fernandes-Torres,'Alfombras Hispano-Moriscas, Tipo Holbein', Archivo Espanol del Arte, XV, 1942, pp.103-111.