Persian, Turkish, or European? An investigation into a table carpet at the Pitti Palace and its place in history

This paper draws attention to an important but little-known needlework table carpet (inv. no. MPP 10562), dated to around the seventeenth century (?) and currently preserved in one of the storerooms of the Pitti Palace in Florence. Rediscovered in the Palace’s tapestry storeroom (c. 2009), the Pitti carpet measures 421 x 212 cm and is made up of four red velvet pieces embroidered in gold and silk. While eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth-century inventories define this carpet as Persian and/or Turkish in origin, and although more recent research has suggested European provenance, its original place of production is still to be definitively established. Thus, this paper aims to reconstruct the history of this carpet by going back in time, providing new insights into its place of origin, dating, materials, and techniques, all supported by diagnostic analyses. By going through the research stages, it traces routes which pass from Asian trading centres to Portugal, and unravels the mystery by proving that the carpet is a Chinese needlework piece, rather than Persian, Turkish, or European. During the research, archival evidence led to the removal of the lining, which confirmed the presence of golden characters from a Far Eastern language, painted in close proximity to the selvedges of the carpet. Deciphering these characters has become the challenge within the challenge. Further research routes can be followed due to the existence of two comparable pieces, which deserve to be studied and reported on alongside this carpet. First, an analogous needlework carpet of roughly the same size (548 x 212 cm), thought to be Ottoman, approximately dated to the sixteenth or seventeenth century (or, more recently, to the nineteenth century) and currently preserved at the Topkapı Palace Museum, in Istanbul (inv. no. 13/10 [TSM]). Secondly, a further carpet, considered to be Indian (or Persian), from the Musée des Arts Décoratifs’ collections, has been preserved at the Louvre Museum, in Paris, since 2007 (inv. no. MAD 4455). By presenting these comparisons, the paper raises new research questions and opens avenues for further exploration to clarify the relationship between the Pitti carpet and its primary similar prototypes, as well as their clientele and uses.