5' x 8' Roman Pictorial Tapestry Rug | Wool & Silk Flat Weave | Cherubs, Crowned Sun & Fleur-de-Lis

This is a pictorial tapestry rather than a plain floor covering: 5' x 8' of hand-woven wool and silk built in the Aubusson flat weave tradition, with no pile at all, so every line of the drawing reads as crisply as brushwork. The composition is a Baroque allegory of royal victory, a crowned sun face at the top, two winged cherubs holding globes in the upper corners, a central oval crest flanked by armored Roman soldiers, and a winged mask with rose garlands closing the bottom. Because a flat weave of this construction is light and completely even, it lives equally well on the floor of a study or stretched and hung on a wall, as shown in one of the photographs here. Every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity confirming it is a genuine hand-woven piece, and this one is in perfect condition with no wear, no repairs and no color loss.

Design and Motifs

The design is read vertically, like a painted panel. At the crown of the field a radiant sun with a human face sits beneath a closed royal crown, framed by scrolling ribbons and swags of fruit and roses. Two plump cherubs with feathered wings lean over the upper corners, each cradling a globe. Below them, star-strewn blue drapery parts to reveal the centerpiece, a cartouche of two joined oval shields, one carrying 3 fleur-de-lis on blue, the other a dotted red field, wrapped in an acanthus and laurel frame. On either side stand two armored figures in classical Roman parade armor with helmets, round shields, curved swords and spears, set among trophies of arms, quivers and chariot wheels. A winged mask crowns the lower axis above a spray of pink and cream roses with sage foliage. The border is a continuous interlocking oval guard, each oval alternating an 8 petal gold rosette, a quatrefoil and a fleur-de-lis, closed by a narrow slate blue outer edge on all 4 sides.

A Palette of Rust, Antique Gold and Indigo Blue

Color is handled in the muted, lightly faded register of old European tapestry rather than in bright modern tones. The dominant family is warm: rust and terracotta through the border ground and the architectural framing, deepening to chestnut brown in the shadows, lifting to antique gold, honey and pale ivory across the sun rays, the armor and the scrollwork. Against that warmth the weavers set a strong slate and indigo blue in the star-scattered drapery and the outer edge, which is what gives the piece its depth and keeps the gold from going flat. The accents are small and precise: rose pink and blush in the flower garlands, soft sage and olive green in the leaves, a single clear red carnation beside the left-hand warrior, and cool pale blue green on the globes the cherubs hold. The silk content shows itself in the light, picking out the sun rays and the highlights on the armor with a sheen the wool areas do not have, so the picture shifts slightly as you walk past it.

Woven in China in the Aubusson Tapestry Tradition

This piece was hand-woven in China, where a number of workshops have specialized for decades in reproducing 17th and 18th century European tapestry cartoons by hand, thread by thread, in the flat weave technique associated with Aubusson. The discipline is different from pile weaving: there is no knot to hide behind, so the weaver has to build every curve, every shaded fold of drapery and every facial feature out of interlocked wefts, which is why cherub faces and armor detail of this standard are a real measure of the workshop's skill. The wool is spun fine and packed tight over a cotton foundation, with silk introduced where the design needs reflectivity, and the color transitions in the sun rays and the blue drapery are blended across many narrow tonal steps rather than jumped. As a hand-woven Oriental rug of pictorial type, it belongs with the decorative panels collectors buy to hang, and at 5' x 8' it is the practical size for a wall above a sideboard or a floor in front of a fireplace.