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Turkish Master Weavers of the late 19th and 20th Centuries |
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Zareh Penyamian |
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| Zareh Penyamian was a Turkish Armenian master
weaver of the Kum Kapi area in Istanbul at the turn of the 19th
Century. Oustha (master) Zareh started his professional life as designer of musical scores
and covers, then became court cartoonist and turned to weaving. It is a well-known fact that Penyamian used to dissect old rugs to study their construction. He was fond of the Classical Ottoman style and did his best to improve on the original composition by his choice of materials and techniques. Penyamian rugs are knotted with plenty of brocading in silver and gold thread combined with shades of pastel silk. His carpets were usually signed discreetly in the field in one or more of the palmettes. Zareh Penyamian is best known for the "Sultan’s Head" prayer rug design. Together with Hagop Kapoukjian and Garabed Apelian he was influential in the "Istambouli" School of weavers of that time. He died in 1949, presumably of tuberculosis. |
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