| Following this discussion, I was waiting for someone to bring up this
aspect of Turkoman rugs, and has Yon has mentioned, this subtle use of
color is encountered in Turkomans of the highest quality. For what reason?
I can only guess, as the others here discussing this topic are doing.
Clearly, Marla's comments make the most sense. As Ronnie Newman mentioned
at Chicago ACOR in his talk on Chinese rugs, often the most mundane and
simple reason is what accounts for the "mysterious" whatever it is that is
being examined and dissected. If there was a real reason for having done
something like this use of color, those reasons will remain obtuse to our
20th (and soon to be 21st) century minds. Our experiences have been so
different, the average western mind cannot grasp the inner workings and
motivation of the eastern mind, especially one removed by a century or
two, or three even. But I come back to Yon's statement, it occurs only in
Turkomans which are of extremely high quality for other reasons, ie. age,
rarity, artistic impact, etc. The Baluch maintained many traditions, in
both design and palette, well into the 19th century, longer than the
Turkoman groups for example. As I have written elsewhere, Baluch rugs are
like a window into the past, a rare opportunity to get a glimpse of a much
older aesthetic and artistic tradition executed in a 19th century rug.
This use of colors which do not contrast, the juxtaposition of these
colors with no defining color (ie. white on a dark ground or vice versa)
is an older aesthetic, evident in some of the weavings attributed to
Seljuk period Anatolia. While in the Islamic Museum in Istanbul, I noticed
more than one Seljuk rug which looked like a Baluch and at least one rug
which looks like a Turkoman. Gives one pause for thought. Hidden secrets?
I doubt it. Artistic impact? Sure, why not. |
The outside
"turrets" of the center whole major gul and of the four partial major guls
are drawn with different colors that their neighbors. This makes them
"read" a little differently than the major guls with darker turret
coloring. It both gives them a kind of ghostly aura and makes them seem
smaller and slightly different from their neighors although their drawing
closely examine seems identical. Plate 30 in this same volume exhibits a
similar variation in color of identical elements in both the elem and the
main border. I own a similar Yomut chuval that has this kind of color
variation in identical designs in the elem, the main border, and both the
minor gul and the center of the major gul. So this practice that Steve has
pointed to does also occur in Turkmen weaving. But these examples do not
seem to suggest any secret the weaver was trying to keep. These uses of
color seem like those the weaver wanted noticed. I am not doubting that
tribal beliefs might include secret signs and talisman-like devices that
might be placed in weavings. (Not to start this specific discussion up
here, but Jim Allen has repeatedly claimed that some of the animal forms
he sees in Turkmen weavings are often also instances of secret things not
to be read by outsiders. If so, in my own case, they have been very
successful.) Here is the closest possible example I can cite of a possible
"secret" device. I own an Ersari torba with only four pink knots, two
pairs placed very widely and precisely in the center of flower forms on
opposite sides of this bag face. Their use cannot be to be seen because I
know they're there and still often have to search for them a bit. They
attract no attention at all. Why did the weaver deviate so deliberately to
include and to place them? I don't know but have been tempted by
talismanic explanations despite my feeling that these are over-used.
Perhaps these four pink silk knots point to a secret, something known only
to this weaver. Political and religious differences might be the occasion
for a weaver smuggling secret devices into a rug. A Christian, Armenian
weaver, weaving a custom rug for Muslim clients and using it either to put
a little of her faith into it in ways they would be unlikely to recognize.
Perhaps some instances of such "smuggling" are famous. Regards, R. John
Howe