Heriz Triclinium

A carpet so obviously created for ceremonial occasions, so imposing in size and character and made with such disregard for the cost of materials or time, could only have been commissioned by a high official, perhaps the governor of a province, a minister or a senior court official; in the reign of Nasser ud-Din Shah, this almost certainly meant that it had been made for a member of the reigning Qajar dynasty. Audience carpets, with their 'four carpets in one' design, were ideally suited to civic and official occasions, rather than everyday use, as they provided an efficient means of storing and displaying the traditional Persian arrangement of a quartet of individual carpets. The 'Triclinium' description of the arrangement derives from the Latin word for the room layout used in the homes of the Roman nobility, where a sofa spanned three sides of a central table. The majority of surviving examples of the Audience are attributable to the Bijar region of Kurdestan, and were generally made at the request of a wealthy local khan (or tribal prince). The contrast between these robust but rare and sought-after Bijar woollen objects and the spectacular, opulent splendour of the present piece could not be more dramatic. Aside from the fact that it is made in the highest silk Heriz construction, the superb accomplishment of the design - undoubtedly the exclusive creation of a leading artist, who would have publicly destroyed his original design diagrams and other artwork once the carpet was completed to prevent any reproductions that might compromise the uniqueness of the original - is of an entirely different order to the usually conventional styles found in other Audience specimens. The long kenareh sections flanking the two sides, where the owner's family, advisors, servants or other peripheral people sat, and the kellegi (or 'head carpet') at the upper end of the composition, where the guest traditionally sat, both use a wonderfully spare and uncluttered latticework of strong abstract character, detailed in what is virtually a monochrome palette, between thin floral border strips. In powerful and intentional contrast, the central section of the mian farsh (= main carpet) - on which the guest of honour, supplicant, diplomatic messenger or other visitor for whom the 'audience' has been arranged is seated facing the occupant of the kellegi - presents an overview of concentrated colour and ornament, its midnight-blue field filled with a strikingly beautiful design.