Garden Design Rugs
Garden Design Persian Rugs
Garden design Persian rugs highlight a special aspect of Persian culture.
To Persians, gardens are more than just a beautiful looking space. They represent Paradise – a place ensconced in splendor, beauty and happiness.
Weavers showcased all of these facets in their creations as a way to express their hopes and belief in this wondrous place.
The Garden design essentially features an elaborate field filled with an exotic variety of flowers, trees and assorted vegetation.
Garden Panel Design
There are several variations of this basic design. The most common design consists of multiple panels in the field with an assortment of flowers, leaves, trees, and birds woven within each panel.
In some garden design rugs, each panel has a unique design, while in others the same design is repeated in every panel. This design is also sometimes called Bandy Design or Panel Design. Tabriz, Bakhtiari and Kashmar rugs often feature this design.
Antique Garden Design Rug Features
Garden design Persian rugs highlight a special aspect of Persian culture.
To Persians, gardens are more than just a beautiful looking space. They represent Paradise – a place ensconced in splendor, beauty and happiness.
Weavers showcased all of these facets in their creations as a way to express their hopes and belief in this wondrous place. The Garden design essentially features an elaborate field filled with an exotic variety of flowers, trees and assorted vegetation.
Garden designs usually comprise of a central waterway coursing its way through the length of the rug. Several tributary canals of varying sizes originate from the central waterway. In addition, there are smaller ponds with or without islands scattered at intervals throughout the field of the rug.
As a life-giving force, water is given much prominence in garden design rugs. Sometimes, the central waterway was replaced by a central fountain.
Stylized fish and waterfowl can often be seen in the various water bodies, while assorted stylized trees, shrubs, and flowers can be seen on the land around the water. Birds and deer are the two most common animal species that appear in garden rugs in between the vegetation. In most cases they are depicted in poses of rest and relaxation. This helps to maintain the calm, restful ambiance that is so strongly associated with gardens.
Although there are several variations of the traditional garden design, the Box Garden and the Diamond Garden have remained two of the most popular garden design patterns.
The Spring of Khosrow is one of the most well-known of all garden carpets and requires special mention.
Spring of Khosrow Carpet: A Famous Garden Carpet
Made especially for the Ctesiphone palace of the Sāsānian king Khosrow I, the Spring of Khosrow carpet is reputed to be one of the most magnificent and most expensive carpet of all time. This ancient Persian carpet was woven between AD 531 and 579.
Measuring about 84 square feet, Spring of Khosrow carpet included all of the features of antique garden carpets.
The field of the rug represented Paradise and had a central waterway with plenty of streams, tributaries, and paths, along with rectangular plots filled with flowering shrubs and trees.
However, what made this carpet so special were the materials used to highlight the various elements of the rug. The splendor of the garden was showcased in an assorted mix of some of the most expensive materials including gold, silver, and gemstones.
Gold was used to depict soil, crystals were used to represent water and precious stones represented flowers and fruits. All of these additions added to the value of the rug.
Unfortunately, the Spring of Khosrow carpet no longer exists in its entirety. Around AD 637, the Arabs captured Ctesiphon and cut the carpet into pieces, which were then distributed to the troops as a reward for their role in the capture.
The Chahar Bagh Gardens
‘Chahar Bagh’ is a Persian term that literally translates to ‘four gardens’. The chahar bagh garden design comprises a garden divided into four parts. A perimeter made up of tall cypress trees and shorter shrubs was intentionally designed around the four gardens. The intention was to protect the vegetation of the four gardens.
All chahar bagh rugs included all the elements of garden design rugs. A wide body of water traversing the center of the design or a fountain at the center. Narrower tributaries and other water offshoots originated at right angles from the central water body and moved to divide the garden into four separate beds.
The four beds represent the four elements – earth, sky, water, and plants. Stylized swimming fish and an assortment of flowers, vegetation, birds, and deer form part of the overall design.
An interesting addition was a raised platform in the center of the design, which was a place for the aristocrats to lounge about.
Origins of The Chahar Bagh Rug Design
The origins of the Chahar Bagh rug design date way back sometime around the middle of the 6th century BC. The first rug was designed for Cyrus the Great’s palace garden at Pasargadae.
One of the reasons why these rugs focused so much on water and irrigation was to compensate for the otherwise arid climate in the region.
Skilled weavers displayed their reverence and appreciation for water and vegetation through the various motifs and other elements incorporated in the famed garden design rugs.
Decorating your Space with Garden Design Persian Rugs
Garden design Persian rugs add a pretty floral decorative touch to any space. More than that, these are iconic pieces rich with history and culture.
Every element that makes up the design represents something that has a special meaning to the weaver, from the flowers that symbolize fertility to the fountains and waterfalls that symbolize eternal life.
Adding such a rug to your home can make for a fantastic conversation piece.
