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Animal & Nature Themes in Antique Rugs and Tapestries

Complementing RI’s spring trend focus on Wild & Wooly rugs, there are many variations of animal and nature themes to be found in antique Persian rugs and period European tapestries.

GARDENS, TREES & FLOWERS

In antique rugs, one of the main differences between rug categories is city rugs versus village rugs, with city rugs typically being more finely woven and having more complex curvilinear designs, and village rugs typically being more coarse in their weave, and having more rudimentary geometric designs.

Whether the designs are more curvilinear or more geometric, though, in the majority of rugs, the designs depict various types of trees or flowers, in some way, shape, or form.

In some instances, the trees and flowers envisioned in antique Persian rugs are central to the rug’s aesthetic, and become the main focus of design within the pattern of the rug.

A case in point is when the rug exhibits a Garden design, in which the main field of the rug is composed of several rows of boxes, with each box exhibiting a different type of tree or flower, the sum of which represents a stylized overhead view of an ideal and highly manicured Persian garden.

Certain rugs feature specific kinds of trees, with some favoring Willow trees, and others Cypress trees. Each brings its own cultural history, meaning, symbolism, and seasonal associations.

Antique Persian Tabriz Willow Tree, 14’0” x 11’8”, circa 1910, #29434

The Willow tree is often connected to the fall and winter seasons and has more somber connotations. The Cypress tree is often connected to spring and summer and has more uplifting and regenerative associations.

One of the most recognizable and revered nature-based rug designs is the Tree of Life motif, in which a finely rendered tree stands at the center of the rug’s pattern, and connotes life, renewal, the Spring season, fertility, eternity, and the connection between heaven and earth.

Antique Persian Ferahan Sarouk Cypress Tree, 12’5” x 9’0”, circa 1900, #29965

In addition to the depiction of different types of trees in antique Persian carpets, there are also numerous types of flowers that are envisioned, with some being more realistic looking, including blossoms and rosettes, and others being more stylized, like gul (flower), gul farang (foreign flower) and herati motifs.

EUROPEAN TAPESTRIES: VERDURE & MILLE FLEURS

Similar to Persian rugs, there is frequently a depiction of gardens, trees, flowers in period European tapestries, hand-made by master weavers in Western Europe in the 15th – 19th centuries.

One of the most popular and beloved examples of this is the Verdure tapestry, in which a forest setting is envisioned, with verdure being the French word for greenery.

As discussed in Rug Insider’s Summer 2024 article Antique Tapestries, these verdure scenes became
incredibly popular in the 17th to 19th centuries. Tapestries, which had in prior centuries only been found in palaces and churches, were now being made smaller and more affordable, so as to be accessible to newly enriched private buyers, who had begun to move from smaller towns and villages to rapidly developing city centers.

17th Century Flemish Verdure Tapestry, 9’6” x 9’6”, #29153

The verdure tapestries represented an idyllic vision of their beloved gardens and forests, which were now no longer just outside their windows.

These verdure tapestries were often rendered in a way that was almost photo-realistic, especially in later times in the 18th and 19th centuries, when the design scale of the tapestries was becoming smaller and finer than in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Some tapestries harken back to a simpler design aesthetic, and recall the more stylized floral renderings of the Gothic tapestries of the 14th and 15th centuries, with the trees and flowers depicted in a Mille Fleurs style.

19th Century French Mille Fleurs Tapestry, 5’9” x 4’0”, #25317

The Mille Fleurs style of tapestry is like a primitive, more rudimentary version of the verdure design, with flowers and trees still being represented, but being rendered with each flower standing separately and in isolation from the other flowers. The name is French and translates to a thousand flowers.

BIRDS & WILDLIFE

Antique Persian Kashan Rug, 6’10” x 4’5”, circa 1920, #23900

In the same way that nature scenes are depicted in both antique Persian rugs and period European tapestries, there are also many kinds of animals and wildlife envisioned in these weavings.

Perhaps the most common animal design found in both antique rugs and tapestries are various bird designs. In antique Persian rugs, bird designs can be found in pictorial style rugs, garden or animal themed rugs, or in certain rugs from the Kashan, Kerman, and Khamseh regions, among others.

In period European tapestries, birds are virtually omnipresent, as they appear in all sorts of tapestry styles, but particularly in the verdure style discussed earlier.

Much in the same way that the verdure tapestry envisions an idyllic natural environment, with trees, flowers, and a forest, scenes also often include a lake or pond, and some types of birds flying or sitting in the woodland settings.

HUNTING SCENES

While most antique rugs and tapestries that have birds and wildlife appearing in placid, tranquil scenes, others go a different route, and capture a moment of action, often in which one type of animal is chasing another, or in which people are in the midst of a hunt.

17th Century French Hunting Tapestry, 4’7” x 4’9”, #29645

In other cases, a series of wild animals are envisioned in isolation within a great expanse, and the viewer is left to imagine which one is chasing which, and what the outcome will be.

In rare cases, we see the end result of the hunt, as with the unique tapestry pictured above, in which the hunters have captured a wild boar, and are processing and preparing for food.

MYTHICAL CREATURES

We discussed above how many antique rugs and tapestries depict birds and animals, with most of these scenes being tranquil and idyllic, but some representing different stages of the hunting process.

Most of the birds and animals envisioned in these hunting scenes are normal animals that appear in the natural world. In some exceptional cases, however, the animals in the scenes belong to the mythical world, and lend a supernatural presence to the environment they are inhabiting.

17th Century Brussels Mythological Tapestry, 11’6” x 10’8”, #27469

In the 17th century Brussels mythological tapestry pictured shown above, we see a scene in which two ancient mythical figures, the heroic hunter, Meleager, and his beloved Atalanta, after he rescues her and the rest of the land from the rampage of the widely feared beast, the Boar of Calydon.

In other instances, however, the supernatural animal in the weaving is something to be seen more with wonder and excitement than with fear, as is the case with one of the most famous tapestry series, the Unicorn tapestries, a renowned set of which can be found at The Cloisters Museum in New York City.

Antique Tapestry ‘Unicorn Resting in a Garden’, The Cloisters Museum, NYC

PASTORAL SCENES

While some of the animal designs delineated here reflect scenes in which the animals are hunted, or inspire strong feelings of fear or wonder, perhaps a more popular and universal style envisioning animals is the
pastoral style, in which shepherds tend to their sheep in a placid natural environment.

Like the verdure tapestries discussed earlier, these pastoral tapestries harkened back to a simpler time and a more natural environment, envisioning the tranquil idyll of people reposing in nature with their sheep. These pastoral tapestries were universally popular in the 17th to 19th centuries, as they were desirable for both secular and religious audiences.

For the secular crowd, the pastoral tapestries represented a vision of nature, the simple life, and the quiet and innocence of the shepherd’s lifestyle.

19th Century French Mille Fleurs Pastoral Tapestry with Joan of Arc, 4’0” x 4’2”, #29114

For the religious crowd, sheep carried added connotations, as they could read in them vestiges of Biblical figures who were at one time simple shepherds in the wilderness.

18th Century French Pastoral Tapestry, 2’7” x 5’1”, #28929

For both audiences, these pastoral tapestries, often paired with verdure scenes, were the ideal way to bring a form of the simple natural idyll into their homes, and to remind them that the natural world was still with them, even when their life journeys had taken them away from nature and into the city.

All of the styles discussed in this article are still popular in the United States, Europe, and beyond. The world’s largest selection of these rugs can be found at Persian Gallery New York.

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