Woolen carpet with millefleurs decoration
Unknown Artist
early 1600s
Medium
Pashmina (wool): asymmetrical knot
Dimensions
{"average":{"height":2.927,"width":2.489}}
Classification
Carpet
Department
Textiles
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Dudley P. Allen Fund
Accession Number
1936.17
About this artwork
Pashmina, a very fine fiber made from the fleece of Himalayan goats, was a material highly valued at the Mughal courts. Luxury rugs functioned in several ways, including as insulators for palatial and ceremonial spaces and as framing devices for important figures. In a biography of the Mughal emperor Akbar (reigned 1556–1605), called the Ain-i-Akbari, the court historian Abu’l Fazl (1551–1602) poetically wrote that such textiles created “a beautiful flowerbed.” The description is apt, as this ca...