Hi Horst,
My search on the net for a color picture of the Pohlman rug has not been a success.
Your point about the possibility of Dutch painters taking liberties with the palette of rugs is well taken. Indeed, seventeenth century painters, contrary to their Renaissance predecessors, would rarely think twice before making such modifications based on their artistic ideas. On the other hand, the fact that several dozens of painters represented Scheunemann’s rug with a similar palette, leaves some hope that the representations were, often enough, genuine in this case.
You are right, the timeline of Ghirlandaio- and Crivelli- motifs in Renaissance painting makes the theory that the latter was the ancestor of the former difficult to sustain, unless both motifs had an old tradition. A weaving in the same- or in close geographical areas remains a credible option though.
About the impact of Timurid wars on rug weaving: Yes, there is no doubt that it must have been significant in many ways, for example due to the habit of Timur (and most other Asian conquerors) to relocate talented artists and artisans from the stormed cities to his capital and main cities (instead of using their severed heads for building pyramidal road signs). On the other way, the trail of destructions spared many parts of Anatolia, which, besides, was not occupied by the victors, leaving the vanquished Ottomans free to take back and quickly amplify their domination there. In Timurid "Greater Persia", after the time of destruction a «Pax Timurica» started, which was as beneficial to Art and Trade as the «Pax Mongolica» of the Il-khanids a century before, if somewhat shorter and a trifle less stable.
Best regards
Pierre
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