AZERBAIJAN-CAUCASIAN
Rugs
A historical Background
by Siawosch U. Azadi

This is a very recent study which attempts to place a little order into the attribution of the vast amount of textile production that comes out of the Caucasus.

Azerbaijan-Caucasian rugs have hitherto been referred to as Caucasian rugs. The geographical term Caucasus refers to the border south of Daghestan. The original territories south and west of this region included Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia. It was as late as 1831, when Persia lost the territories north of the River Aras after nearly thirty years of war with Russia, that a borderline was drawn between northern Azerbaijan, which become a north-western province of Persia...

In this intriguing article the author takes a new look at some paintings featuring rugs. He puts forward the idea that what is being depicted perhaps consists of some of the signs of the zodiac.

There is a group of four similar Italian Annunciation paintings from the mid-fifteenth century which depict what appear to be small panel rugs in their foregrounds. The rugs in all four paintings are in the same format, with a row of three to five truncated-corner panels containing rather bizarre animals. Three of the paintings are in Dr John Mill's list of Animal Rugs in paintings (nos. 49, 51 &52, Mills, 1978) while the fourth, now in an American collection...

The author takes us on a tour of the textile finds from Moscevaja Balka, which are currently preserved in the Hermitage Museum of St Petersburg. Textile finds from archaeological sites are only rarely used as the main feature of an international textile exhibition. In fact up until a few decades ago, their very discovery was only marginally considered when compared to ceramics and metals, the dating and provenance for which were more reliable owing to their restricted localisation. As a result, it is art historians in particular who have turned to the study of textile art, using stylistic and technical criteria to arrive at their attributions. However, owing to the widespread use and movement of motifs found on textiles,