Art historian Kurt Erdmann says that the patterns made it easier to figure out when styles were made. He classified these carpets into four sub-divisions identified by each one’s unique patterning:
Pattern Type 1: Repeated small octagons and staggered rows of diamonds as seen in Holbein’s Portrait of Georg Gisze.
Pattern Type 2: Lotto carpets feature arabesque-like foliage with branched palmettes introduced by Lorenzo Lotto who emulated Holbein’s style, thus the two equally influenced this classification (e.g., Mediash Holbein rugs).
Pattern Type 3: Large squares with octagons and narrow; striped borders as depicted in Holbein’s “The Ambassadors.”
Pattern Type 4: Large-pattern, square, star-filled fields plus small squares and “gul” –octagonal medallions—plus ornaments of unequal scale identify a Type 4 Holbein rug.