9' x 9' Square Pictorial Tapestry Wall Hanging Rug | Baroque Figural Scene | Flat Weave

This is a picture woven in wool, not a floor piece with a pattern on it. Measuring 9' x 9', the square panel carries a full Baroque audience scene: an armored commander in a crimson cloak receives a group of kneeling women, a small child and their attendants beneath a slate blue tent, with a palm tree and a pale coastal horizon opening on the right. It is a weft-faced tapestry flat weave with no pile, so the drawing stays as sharp as a painted cartoon, and every face, hand and fold of drapery is built up in hatched color rather than outlined. Finished with a woven brown selvage on all 4 sides, it can be hung as wall art, as image 2 shows above a mantel, or laid flat in a low traffic room. As an Oriental rug in the broader sense of the term, it ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is genuine handmade work.

Design and Motifs

The central field is a crowded, theatrical composition in the classical history manner. At the right stands the commander in a scaled gold cuirass and plumed helmet, one arm extended in a gesture of clemency, with a second plumed officer behind him carrying a short dagger and a view of distant sails past his shoulder. To the left, more than a dozen figures press forward: a veiled woman kneeling in pale blue-white silk with a jeweled clasp, a curly haired child reaching up, a bare-shouldered figure and a bald attendant, a chariot wheel and a curved standard rising out of the shadow, all gathered under the swagged tent whose gold-embroidered valance is woven thread by thread. The wide border is a separate pleasure: continuous garlands of roses, tulips and peonies interlaced with martial trophies, a trumpet, shields, drums, a helmet and a flower filled blue and white urn at each midpoint. Crowning the top border is a cartouche with a jeweled crown over an ermine mantle and paired heraldic medallions, one with a lion, one with a rearing horse, the sort of armorial device that anchored these panels to a specific house.

A Muted Palette Built From Dozens of Shades

The color is deliberately antiqued rather than bright. Rust and terracotta carry the border ground and the second officer's billowing cloak, while the commander's mantle is a deep crimson that shades through burgundy to a dusty rose in the highlights. Behind the figures the tent reads slate blue and soft gray-green, cooling the whole left half and setting off the ivory and pale celadon of the kneeling woman's robe. Flesh tones move through cream, pale peach and warm tan across at least 6 gradations on a single face, which is what gives the modeling its depth at close range. Sage and moss green thread through the floral garlands, joined by rose pink, madder red, ecru and touches of denim blue in the urns and ribbons. A dark chocolate brown frames the outer edge and repeats in the shadowed ground at the figures' feet, and the narrow salmon guard stripe separates border from field. Seen as a whole the effect is warm and faded in the best sense, the tonality of an old European panel rather than anything glossy or new.

Woven in China to the European Tapestry Tradition

China is where the surviving handwoven tapestry ateliers now do this work, and they do it well. A panel like this is woven on a loom with a cotton warp completely covered by hand-dyed wool wefts, the weaver following a full scale cartoon and changing color every few threads, which is why a 9' x 9' figural scene takes far longer to complete than a knotted rug of the same size. Look at image 15 and you can see the back: an even, tightly packed flat weave with the color changes and loose ends that identify genuine hand work rather than a printed or machine-jacquard imitation. Among handmade Oriental rugs this is the branch closest to painting, judged on drawing and on the number of shades the weaver is willing to blend, and on both counts this square panel is a strong example in perfect condition.