Persian Rug History: From Pazyryk to Modern Design

The History of Persian Rug Masters:
The Persian rug is among the things that tend to connect the old and the new in the elegant houses of Dallas, the old mansions of Highland Park, and the brand new penthouses of the Arts District. One can simply consider a hand-knotted rug as a piece of cloth - something that can provide a room with its color or coziness. Nonetheless, and in the case of RenCollection, we consider each knot a pixel in a picture that has been evolving throughout 2,500 years. To have a nice Persian rug is to be heir to a family that lived through empires, wars, and revolutions.

5th Century BC: The Pazyryk Revelation
The complex art of pile rug weaving was, since ancient times, thought by historians to be a medieval development. In 1949, this assumption was broken. A grave discovered by Russian archeologists excavating a Scythian funeral barrow in the Altai Mountains in Siberia had been preserved in ice. The Pazyryk had been preserved within it, by the permafrost, the Pazyryk rug. Carbon dating dated it to the 5th Century BC, which was the period of the Achaemenid Empire.
Why It Matters
Pazyryk is not a rude prototype; it is a masterpiece.
It is also a heavy weave, with close to 230 knots per square inch, a feature that can compete with most fine rugs made today. The pattern has markedly advanced borders of grazing deer and men riding horses, and shows a plane of artistic manliness that suggests the art was centuries old at the time this rug was woven.

1501 - 1736: The Safavid "Golden Age."
As the Pazyryk evidence shows, the Safavid Dynasty is the blossoming of the art form into the high culture as we know it today. This period, especially during the reign of Shah Abbas the Great (1588-1629), is the so-called Golden Age of Persian weaving.
Until this time, rugs were mostly tribal, woven by nomads using geometric designs from memory. Everything was transformed by Shah Abbas. He opened royal workshops in Isfahan, Kashan, and Kerman and made the art of rug weaving on a par with fine arts such as painting and architecture.
The Shift in Design
This was a period where the curvilinear design was developed. Since the rug weaving artists now created the designs and patterns on paper (cartoons) prior to weaving, the designs became flowing, flowery, and incredibly complicated.
The Medallion: The main medallion shape, a symbol of a mosque dome or a lotus flower, became the most prominent form.
The Arabesque: The vines and tendrils could be seen as spiraling and became a feature of the Isfahan style.
The Polonaise rugs: These were metal-threaded, silk-covered rugs used exclusively by European royalty, marking the inception of the Persian rug as a luxury commodity worldwide.
You can go to the Ren Collection showroom and look at a classic floral Isfahan or a medallion-based Kashan, and you are looking at the immediate design descendant of this Golden Age.

The 19th Century: The Great Revival and the Western Influence
After the decline of the Safavids, rug weaving became a cottage industry over the course of a century. Nevertheless, towards the end of the 19th century, a great revival occurred, fuelled by a new, insatiable appetite in the West (Europe and America).
It was during this time that the organized weaving centers that had been disbanded during the decline of the Safavid era were reinstated in Tabriz, Sultanabad, and Kerman, forming the basis of the Great Revival. But this period brought about a very interesting twist: a change in design to suit Western taste.

The 20th Century: Modernism and Tribe Revival
Designers such as Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright knew the force of contrast. They also had many Persian tribal rugs, both the geometric Gabbeh and Heriz designs, to warm their cold, modern rooms and make them feel more human.
The Geometric Shift
The villager rug was rediscovered during the 20th century. Compared with the idealized, flowered city rugs of the Safavid period, village rugs  (such as those of the Heriz and Qashqai tribes) were geometric, bold, and a bit, but not wholly, symmetrical.
The Heriz: The Heriz was known as the Iron Rug of Persia and was a regular in American executive offices and libraries.
The Gabbeh: These tribal rugs, with their heavy pile, abstract minimalism, and expansive areas of open color, became so fashionable in the late 20th century that they defy the distinction between the traditional craft and abstract art.

The 21st Century: The Age of Transitional Design
Nowadays, we enter a new, exciting period in the chronicle: the Transitional Era.
Ren Collection has a wide variety of customers. There are purists who desire the historical authenticity of a classical Tabriz. Nevertheless, a significant portion of Dallas homeowners would like the quality of a hand-knotted Persian rug, with a look more suited to a neutral, contemporary, or Greige palette.
The Unclean and Overwritten Appearance
Contemporary weavers are reusing old designs, exposing them to oxidation, or shaving them to produce an antique or lost appearance. It pays tribute to the pattern's history but sets it against a backdrop of texture, making the rug appear used and friendly rather than formal.
Sustainable and Natural
In the same way, the Pazyryk rugs used natural dyes; the 21st-century market has returned to the need for vegetable dyes and hand-spun wool. It rejects the artificial excellence of machine-manufactured rugs. The modern luxury customer desires the so-called abrash, or natural variation in color, which illustrates the work of a human hand.

Conclusion: History Dallas
Once you draw a line between the ice-covered tomb of the Pazyryk and the colorful rugs of a Dallas living room, one thing will be evident: the Persian rug is a survivor. It adapts. It evolves. Nevertheless, deep down, it is the same.
We have been privileged to be the conduit into your modern-day home of this ancient mastery at RenCollection. You will find that by visiting our showroom in the Dallas Design District, you can feel these timelines. Visit the 2,500-year-old and experience the artistry with their feet.
Experience the mastery. Visit the Ren Collection today.