Carpets and religion

The Alms of St Anthony (St Antoninus altarpiece), Lorenzo Lotto, 1541-42 (oil on canvas, 332 x 235 cm). Chiesa di Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice. 

Between the fifteenth and the seventeenth century, Venice was flooded with oriental carpets arriving from the Eastern Mediterranean, either through maritime or terrestrial routes. These carpets, of small and medium dimensions, were originally made in Anatolia and intended to be used as prayer rugs. They were used by pilgrims to wrap the relics they had found in the Holy Land and, by extension, acquired holy characteristics in the eyes of Europeans.

Sixteenth-century painters’ depictions of oriental carpets are revealing of this association with holiness. Indeed, carpets were often placed under the Virgin's or saints' thrones, creating a sacred space around them. In Lorenzo Lotto’s altarpiece, a carpet is placed on the balcony between the deacons and the poor, and another one marks the entry in the spiritual realm surrounding St Antoninus and the angels.

Some carpet motifs acquired the name of the European painters which depicted them most frequently. For instance, the carpet which the deacons lean on in the St Antoninus altarpiece is described as “Lotto style". Although few carpets have survived to this day, those which have demonstrate how closely Lotto depicted the motif’s arabesques.