Medallion Ushak Carpet

Carpets, both locally made (identified in inventories as de la tierra) or imported from Spain (del Reyno) or the Near East, lined floors as well as the raised platforms in the estrado. This large carpet adorned with vegetal and geometric motifs was created in Ushak in western Anatolia (then part of the Ottoman Empire), a principal center of rug production since 1487. The inclusion of Turkish carpets in women’s sitting rooms is confirmed by the 1738 inventory of Don Sebastian Curbelo in La Guaira, Venezuela, which lists “a large estrado carpet, from Turkey, used.”