The Oriental Carpet Buyer

Art collector Rainer Kreissl who died in 2005 left behind him an unresolved argument. Should what most people call “oriental” carpets be called so? Here is the article in the Turkish Daily Times:
As he became an expert on Anatolian village rugs, and wrote about them, he urged Westerners to stop regarding Eastern weavings as “Oriental,” that is, outside of their own art history. Instead, he argued that Turkish motifs draw on many pre-Islamic sources, including Western and Christian traditions.

(I believe he is the one on the right in this photo.)

Among the evidence were similarities between some rug motifs and the patterns found in Hellenistic art or in the painted markings on columns in Cappadocia’s underground churches, he said.

Kreissl’s death in 2005 at the age of 81 leaves his argument unresolved. But the donation of his entire collection, intact, to a single Prague museum puts it within reach of other rug scholars, should they want to try to prove or disprove his thesis.

(read more)

Here are two books by Kreissl that Barry O’Connell features on his website:
Art as Tradition - Anatolia ; Prague: 1995. 8.5 x 12, The Rainer Kreissl collection of 100 antique Turkish kilim and piled rugs presented as a gift to the Prague Castle and the, Naprstkovo Museum., 100 CP.

Gates to Heaven - Anatolia ; Munchen: 1998. 8 x 12, Kreissl collection of antique Anatolian prayer rugs and kilims., 120 CP.