ALCARAZ CARPET

floor covering handwoven in 15th- and 16th-century Spain at Alcaraz in Murcia. These carpets use the Spanish knot on one warp. A number of 15th-century examples imitate contemporary Turkish types but differ in border details and colouring. There are several different patterns of carpet with wheels in rectangular compartments. Other carpets imitate a wide range of brocade and velvet patterns. A remarkable number of these carpets survive, either complete or as fragments. The colouring is vivid, with a good, apparently madder, red in the 15th-century examples; but, in the 16th century, reds seem suddenly to lighten into coral and salmon shades and then disappear, perhaps owing to difficulties in setting the cochineal dye that was being imported in quantity from Mexico. A fashion then arose for carpets in two shades of green, yellow, or black-brown and white. Brocade and velvet patterns continued in use, especially an ogee lattice with crowns at points of intersection. The favourite design, however, was of wreaths of serrated leaves in rows, perhaps a continuation in spirit of the wheel design of the 15th century. The border now generally had a broad stripe, sometimes of arabesque dragons, and the narrow guard stripes might show the knotted cord of the Franciscan order. Alcaraz carpets closely resemble contemporary rugs from Salamanca and Valencia.