The Kashmiri carpet-weaving tradition, introduced to the region around 400 years ago by India’s Mughal rulers, is filled with multiple narrative threads, each bringing its own flavour to a story that continues to be made
Several years ago we inherited a Persian rug that looks like a painting. It depicts a vase from which a single, stylised bloom emerges, surrounded by birds of paradise and set within an arch. A lamp hangs from the top of the arch, and the carpet is bordered by a repeat design of birds and blooms. The colours are intense – a jewel-like palette of blues, pinks, reds, green, grey and brown. It was authenticated as coming from Isfahan, the city where the art of luxury carpet weaving reached its height during the 16th century, although our carpet certainly isn’t an antique. It was probably made 40 years ago, yet its design reaches back through the centuries to a time when the arts and crafts of Persia were spreading across the Islamic world.
Kashmiri rugs aren’t necessarily made in Kashmir. The word is used loosely to describe a range of fine carpets and rugs handwoven in different regions of northern India, including Lahore, Punjab and the cities of Agra and Fatehpur Sikri, as well as Kashmir’s carpetmaking hub in Srinagar. Nor is the craft of carpet weaving native to Kashmir. It was introduced to the region around 400 years ago by India’s Mughal rulers, adopting techniques and designs that were Persian.
The Emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605) was an active patron of the arts, and the essential features of Mughal art were established during his reign: a love of the natural world, insistence on workmanship of the highest standard, and a fusion of Persian and Indian traditions. His legacy can be seen in his buildings – the walls of Agra Fort, the Palace of Jahangir, the Fatehpur Sikri complex – and in the illuminated manuscripts he commissioned on a prodigious scale, but he is also credited with establishing court workshops to create the luxury items – the furnishings, perfumes and clothes – that were a necessary part of royal life.
Denne historien er fra June - July 2019-utgaven av Arts Illustrated.
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Denne historien er fra June - July 2019-utgaven av Arts Illustrated.
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A Sky Full Of Thoughts
Artist James Turrell’s ‘Twilight Epiphany Skyspace’ brings together the many nuances of architecture, time, space, light and music in a profound experience that blurs boundaries and lets one roam free within their own minds
We Are Looking into It
Swiss-based artists Jojakim Cortis and Adrian Sonderegger talk to us about the evolving meaning and purpose of photography and the many perspectives it lends to history
Cracked Wide Open
Building one of the world’s largest domes was no mean task for anyone, let alone an amateur goldsmith, so how did Filippo Brunelleschi accomplish building not one, but two of them?
In Search of a Witness
In conversation with legendary artist Arpana Caur on all things epiphanic, on all things pandemic, and on all things artistic
Where the Shadows Speak
The founder of Sarmaya Arts Foundation takes us through the bylanes of his journey with Sindhe Chidambara Rao, the custodian of the ancient art form of shadow puppetry – Tholu Bommalata
Bodies in Motion
What happens to the memory of a revelatory experience when it is re-watched through the frames of a screen? It somehow makes the edges sharper and the focal point clearer, as we discover through Chandralekha’s iconic Sharira
Faces in the Water
As physical ‘masks’ become part of our life, we take a look at artists working with different aspects of ‘faces’ and the things that lurk beneath the surface.
A Meeting at the Threshold
The immortal actor exemplified all that is admirable about his profession, from his creative choices to his work philosophy, and his passing was a low blow. This is our tribute to the prince among stars – Irrfan
The Imperfect Layout To The Imperfect Mystery
Jane De Suza’s ‘The Spy Who Lost Her Head’ doesn’t feature a protagonist with superhuman skills of deduction, nor a plot that fits together like a jigsaw puzzle. Here, quirks and imperfections are pushed into the spotlight
Free and Flawed
Greta Gerwig revitalises the literary classic, Little Women, highlighting the literary journey of its temperamental and wonderfully flawed female protagonist, Jo March
