[classical 17th century style]
Male Narrator This hand-knotted carpet was woven in the 1660s at the Savonnerie Manufactory, located on Paris’ western edge. Because of the unparalleled quality of carpets like this, the Savonnerie is widely considered the greatest European carpet-making enterprise of the age. After purchasing it in 1938, J. Paul Getty lent it to a Paris museum, where an official described it as “one of the rarest and most beautiful of all Savonnerie carpets.”
The double-looped knotting, a Middle Eastern technique also called Turkish knotting, gives this carpet its lush, velvety pile. It contains an astounding 100 knots per inch, allowing the flowers to be rendered in exquisitely accurate detail - the sunflower at the center represents Louis XIV, known as the Sun King. In addition, the borders feature many of the types of objects that Getty collected, including silver and porcelain bowls.
Getty was passionate and well-informed about the textiles that he collected. His former curator of decorative arts recalls that he once got down on his hands and knees to inspect a carpet and to describe its knots and dyes to her. In a telling comment, Getty revealed his belief that “a rug or a carpet or a piece of furniture can be as beautiful, possess as much artistic merit, and reflect as much creative genius as a painting or a statue.”
