A book about the rugs of the Protestant Churches in Transylvania
Transylvania continues to be the repository of the richest and best preserved corpus of small-format Turkish carpets outside the Islamic world.
Almost 400 examples attributable to the golden period of Ottoman weaving from the mid 15th to the end of the 18th century survived here including most of the classical groups such as ‘Ghirlandaio’, Holbein, Ushak, ‘Lotto’, Selendi, ‘Transylvanian’, Kula and Ghiordes.
Attempts to explain the presence of so many Ottoman Turkish rugs in the Lutheran Churches of the Saxon community in Transylvania have so far resulted in theories that range from the incomplete to the eccentric.
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News and Updates
Alberto Boralevi and Stefano Ionescu invite you to join the next study tour Discover Transylvania 2009 which will start on May 29 in Bucharest.
Participants will see dozens of rare Romanian flatwaves and almost 300 Ottoman rugs from late 15th to 18th century, preserved in the Lutheran Churches and the Museums of the region, and will visit the most interesting places in Bucharest and in Transylvania: art museums, fortified churches, Royal palaces, medieval castles and pristine nature in the Carpathians. They will also have a chance to meet Lutheran pastors, Orthodox priests, art collectors, museum curators, scholars and restores.
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On December 2008 the volume Antique Ottoman Rugs in Transylvania has been awarded the G. Oprescu Prize of the Romanian Academy in History of Art. This is the most important award for a book in Romania and also one of the very rare academic awards for a carpet book, worldwide.
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An amusing account of the Study Tour Discover Transylvania 2008 as seen by the keen eye of Judith Glass, one of the participants.
Download the article.
Exhibition at the Sakip Sabanci Museum in Emirgan, Istanbul curated by dr. Nazan Olçer and Michael Franses.
http://www.textile-art.com/artc/artc.h
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A new, revised and expanded edition launched on the occasion of ICOC 2007.
Edited by Stefano Ionescu
Text: Alberto Boralevi, Stefano Ionescu, Andrei Kertesz
The book begins with an overview of the relevant carpet literature, which for generations of scholars and rug enthusiasts was dominated by Emil Schmutzler’s monumental study Altorientalische Teppiche in Siebenbürgen, published in 1933.
This is followed by a succinct account of Transylvania’s turbulent history, leading to an examination of the trade in Ottoman rugs and the ways in which such rugs were used and valued.
The famous collection of Anatolian rugs of the Black Church in Brasov is published in its entirety for the first time. Church and museum carpet collections from Transylvania, as well as from Bucharest and Budapest are discussed with many additional illustrations. Colour images of almost 300 Turkish rugs, are published together with technical analyses.
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Download the brochure of the German version of the book.
The First Ottoman Turkish Carpet Exhibition in the Western World (HALI 131)
Download the article.
Markus Voigt reports
Download the overview: (English) (Italian)
Download the first review of the book.
October 2004: rug-tour to Budapest. See report
April 2004: rug-tour to Transylvania. See report
