Eastern carpets and European paintings have an interwoven history. During the Renaissance, imported carpets, particularly from the Turkish region of Anatolia, were featured in devotional paintings and portraits. These exotic and expensive textiles served to emphasize a person’s wealth, worldliness, and status. They also added color and pattern to a composition.
‘Lotto’ Carpets
The 1547 Lotto painting “Portrait of Giovanni della Volta with his Wife and Children” at London’s National Gallery is a fascinating work in terms of objects. Included in the family portrait is a “Lotto” carpet, characterized by yellow arabesque motifs on a red background. It is the only known picture by Lotto of a married couple alongside two children, a rare representation for its time.
Lotto was born in Venice, where he was exposed to the work of the great Giovanni Bellini and Albrecht Dürer. These artists, along with Raphael, with whom he worked at the Vatican, greatly influenced him. Later, Lotto developed his own idiosyncratic style: His highly detailed artworks typically feature rich saturated colors and bold shadows, and their tone can range from poetic to playful. Contemporaries such as Giorgione and Titian outshone him in his time, and art historians began to reconsider his oeuvre in the late 19th century. It was only in the 1980s that scholarly interest in and appreciation of his individualistic viewpoint became heightened.
Portrait of Giovanni della Volta With His Wife and Children
The painting shows della Volta, his wife, daughter, and son around a table covered by a “Lotto” carpet. As carpets were costly, they were regularly used as a table covering instead of being placed on the floor. A silver bowl on the table that reflects the carpet’s pattern is filled with cherries. The little girl also sits on the table, and she transfers fruit from the bowl to her mother’s hand. Behind this central vignette is a window view that shows a barren Venetian landscape; it is unknown whether the artist attached a symbolic meaning to the vista.
Lotto positions the woman in an unusual way, placing her on her husband’s right, which was considered the location of honor. She poses with her right hand on her hip. This may reference a painting by Lotto’s contemporary Paris Bordone, whose “Portrait of a Young Woman” also shows a female dressed in a gown of deep rose with crumpled sleeves. This picture is dated to 1545–1550, so it remains unclear which canvas was painted first.
The lively young boy in Lotto’s painting is set on the other side of the table alongside his father. Standing on one leg and wearing transparent blue cloth, he reaches up to grab a pair of cherries suspended from della Volta’s hand. The National Gallery writes, “His strange, semi-nude appearance may have symbolic significance, perhaps to emphasise his status as first-born male and thus heir.” Scholars have suggested possible references for this pose, including inspiration from Titian’s 1542 “Portrait of Clarice Strozzi.” A relief of dancing toddlers on the lower right of this canvas looks similar to Lotto’s boy.
Italian artists began portraying Anatolian carpets in the 14th century, but Marco Polo had already noted in the 1270s that the most beautiful carpets were created in “Turkomania.” Trade bought carpets woven throughout Anatolia to Venice and beyond. The “Lotto” type of carpet is estimated to have originated before 1500, and it remained a popular export to Europe through the 18th century.
Early examples of Lotto carpets, including the one in “Portrait of Giovanni della Volta With His Wife and Children,” include pseudo-calligraphic designs on its borders. The Metropolitan Museum of Art explains that these decorative schemes “derive from a rectilinear form of Arabic script known as kufic.”
The importance of textiles in art and society is exemplified in Lotto’s “Portrait of Giovanni della Volta With His Wife and Children.” Scholars know from studying the artist’s account book entry that the picture was originally protected by a fabric cover, now lost, that may have been decorated. The “Lotto” carpet is one of the portrait’s focal points. Studying artworks such as this alongside surviving period carpets enhances the viewing experience of both.
