A rug with a unique design that does not match any of the usual styles of knotted carpets. It may be related to some extent to certain rugs/tapestries of the time of Charles III in its reminiscences of Pompeii, but the unusual fact that it features figurative motifs makes that link a tenuous one.

The design centres on a large, oval central medallion made to look like a blue sky surrounded by climbing vines. The rest of the field is beige, and is occupied by a number of stand-out decorative panels on blue and pink backgrounds. They are all drawn in mixtilinear lines with golden ferronnerie motifs.

Embroidered all around the edge of the rug is a series of panels that appear to hang from a bar. Their interiors are pink, and they depict a variety of naturalistic motifs: most are birds with elegant plumage (facing each other or drinking from a fountain), but there are also two pastoral motifs flanking the corners. At the corners, elegant bunches of flowers hang from pink ribbons on a blue background. Large ferronnerie decorations mark each corner of the field. They are arranged in a bisector pattern, i.e. following the diagonal of the corner, and form a tripod shape with trays of flowers on a mixed background of pink and blue. Garlands of flowers are entwined on each side with more ferronnerie panels or cartouches. On one side they converge towards those on the longer side of the rug, and on the other towards further panels containing two large birds with long bills. An orangey, ochre-coloured selvedge forms a broad edging around the rug.

The composition is clearly reminiscent of the grotesques and paintings of Pompeii: it shares the same ornamental spirit found on the frescoes and mosaics of classical antiquity. Those frescoes were incorporated into Western art following the discovery in the 16th century of the grottes of Nero's Domus Aurea, and the mosaics in the wake of the digs at Pompeii and Herculaneum in the mid-18th century. This grotesque, Pompeii-style decoration spread through engravings and illustrations which subsequently served as the inspiration for murals, ceilings and applied art works of all kinds. This included tapestries and the Spanish rugs of the time of Charles III and Charles IV, which thus became the prime testimonies of the impact in Europe of the archaeological finds made in Campania when Charles III was Viceroy of Naples.

The composition of this rug is reminiscent of 18th century ceilings, which often drew inspiration from neoclassical rug designs, but a more careful examination reveals that they were most directly inspired by tapestries; more specifically by the group of grotesque tapestries held in the Patrimonio Nacional [Spanish National Heritage] collection under the name 'series 31', which were originally bedroom hangings. They date from the reign of Philip II (c. 1560) and show how this new type of decoration became popular in the courts of Europe following the archaeological discoveries of Raphael and his closest collaborators, particularly Giovanni da Udine. The designer of the rug was inspired directly by certain details in panel 2 of the set of hangings: birds drinking from bowls of water, waders arranged on ferronnerie panels on each side of vases of flowers and pastoral symbols and trophies. Also in evidence are vines with leaves and bunches of grapes and ferronnerie style architecture.

The selvedge has the manufacturer's marks 'REAL FÁBRICA DE TAPICES' [‘Royal Tapestry Works’] and 'STUYCK = MADRID 1943'. As might be expected of such a 'learned' design, this indicates that the rug was woven at the tapestry works in Atocha in 1943, during the tenure of Gabino Stuyck San Martín as its director. The familiarity of the directors with the royal art collections certainly contributed to the drawing of inspiration from Philip II's grotesque tapestries. The Historical Archives of the Real Fábrica de Tapices contain a cartoon (1544 ALF) that is not an exact match for the design of Rug Nº 137 but is very similar in the details of its decoration, and is certainly inspired by tapestry Nº 2 of Series 31 at the Patrimonio Nacional.

Antonio Sama