“Pictorial rugs” refers to artistic pieces that depict scenic designs or portray specific people, figures, times, or places. They can depict the a traditional hunt like this fantastic Agra, a simple portrait, or a myriad of animals and people like in this exquisite 17th century Esfahan from Persia. Tapestries are also often pictorial and vary tremendously.
This example, a 17th Century Tapestry, shows the heraldic symbols of a Spanish admiral. In addition to being very collectible, these types of pieces are often decorative. However they are designed they are always robust and full of life as if the scene is unfolding before your very eyes.
Pictorial rugs are some of the most over-the-top examples of the artistry, talent and determination needed to design and construct a fine, everlasting carpet. From antique tapestries to lavish hunting rugs, these pictorial rugs pay homage to history, people and important events. Pictorial Persian carpets have been traditionally produced in Kashan, Isfahan, Tabriz and cities where the great master weavers worked. Indian and Persian hunting rugs are excellent examples of pictorial rugs and scenic carpets that depict countless animals, horsemen and animated predators set among a lush, forested background.
Portraits of dignitaries, important officials and high-ranking people are also found in antique pictorial rugs. With the same token, weavers also choose to illustrate important scenes from history and literature. Pastoral landscape scenes and geographic illustrations of particular places are also found in some prestigious pictorial rugs. Even tribal weavers depict people and animals, but they do this in a much more simplified and abstract manner.
In many ways, pictorial and scenic carpets feature a more detailed and specific composition that is similar to traditional works of art and breaks away from the ambiguity of allover rug patterns filled with lush vine-scrolls.
Fine antique European tapestries that feature formal compositions and gilded frames resemble classical paintings and works of art more closely while other pictorial rugs are more abstract and open to interpretation. Due to their rarity, quality and execution, antique pictorial rugs are coveted representations of the varied art of carpet weaving.