HALI NEWSLETTER No. 422

[View this email in your browser]( [News] mailto:halitours@hali.com?subject=HALI%20Tour%202024 mailto:halitours@hali.com?subject=HALI%20Tour%202024 A 2015 HALI Tour to the Iberian Peninsula marked the beginning of a partnership between HALI and Martin Randall Travel, one of the world's leading cultural tour operators. The Hispanic-art historian Gijs van Hensbergen guided participants for thirteen days through the textile arts of the region, with unique access to works of art, personal guided tours with curators and meetings with directors. An article by HALI editors Rachel Meek and Ben Evans from [Issue 185]( (above), recounts highlights. In Portugal, a visit to the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga involved a guided tour around galleries 'filled with Indian cottons and embroidered quilts from Bengal and Goa, carpets from India and Persia and the museum’s large collection of embroidered Arraiolos rugs.' Another day saw an unforgettable visit to the 'Calouste Gulbenkian Museum and its peerless carpet and textile collection'. In Spain, a visit to the Lazaro Galdiano Museum included a 'special display to trace the development of Spanish silk weaving', while a tour around a 19th-century neomudéjar building in Madrid, revealed 'velvets and fragments of Spanish knotted carpets, a 15th-century armorial carpet, and a rug with an unusual field design within an ornate kufesque border'. In May 2024, HALI Tour will again partner with Martin Randall Travel, for a similar Iberian programme led by [Gijs van Hensbergen](. Register your interest via [email](mailto:halitours@hali.com?subject=HALI%20Tour%202024) to be among the first to be informed when booking opens and follow the [HALI Tour Instagram]( page for updates, which will be revealed in the coming weeks. [News] On 4 March 2023, Te Fare Iamanaha—Musée de Tahiti et des Îles opened new galleries, designed by the architect Pierre-Jean Picart in collaboration with the scenographer Adrien Gardère. Located on Hiti land, Nuuroa Point (Pointe des Pêcheurs) in Puna’auia on Tahiti, French Polynesia, it closed its former permanent display in 2018. The new permanent exhibition space is dedicated to Polynesian culture and highlights ‘the cultural specificities of each of the five archipelagos of the region’. Following the refurbishment, cooperation agreements have been established with the British Museum, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge and the Musée du quai Branly—Jacques Chirac. Assistant curator Dr Marine Vallée describes the resulting series of international loans and deposits as ‘a significant step for local audiences for which dispersed heritage is often hardly accessible’. Photo: Te Fare Iamanaha—Musée de Tahiti et des Îles, ©MTI. [Find out more.]( [News] If you are a professional buyer of contemporary carpets, now is the time to register for COVER Connect New York! The boutique show for leading high-end rug brands is returning to Manhattan, 9–11 September 2023. Hosted by HALI's sister publication, COVER magazine, the third edition will host close to forty exhibitors, displaying outstanding contemporary, transitional and traditional rugs across two neighbouring buildings—Metropolitan Pavilion and The Altman Building. Those who register before August 9 are automatically entered into a prize draw to win two free hotel nights during the show! Be in with a chance to enjoy a stay at the Dream Downtown hotel, located in Chelsea, Manhattan, not far from the Meatpacking District and just a 10-minute walk from the show venues. [Register now.]( [News] This month for [#RugFactFriday]( we will be looking at Mamluk carpets, which played an important role in Mediterranean trade and famously featured in numerous Renaissance paintings. In [HALI 134]( from 2004, Carlo Maria Suriano discusses these weavings in detail and the different views about their provenance and dating. He asserts that 'carpet weaving stands apart from all other arts practised under the Mamluk Sultanate for the continuing controversy over its date and place of origin. According to the generally held view, Mamluk carpet production is attributable in its entirety to the second half of the 15th and well into the 16th century. We are no nearer a satisfactory solution when it comes to determining the place of origin of Mamluk carpets. While many commentators follow scholars such as Friedrich Sarre, Ernst Ktihnel and Kurt Erdmann in attributing all the rugs to Cairo, others have sought to identify a possible second production area.' He goes on to provide a description of the distinguishing features of these weavings: 'Of all Islamic carpets, the Mamluk rug is perhaps the most striking, woven in jewel-like tones of red, green and blue, with an almost silky iridescence. Apart from the silk example in Vienna, all are made of wool, with a characteristic geometric design, unique to the Mamluks, of interlocking squares, stars, triangles and polygons. In most instances Mamluk rugs articulate around a single central medallion. A number of larger carpets repeat this unit three times and it is repeated five times in one example, the Simonetti carpet owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (detail shown above). Apart from the difference in pattern units, this production shows such a striking similarity of layout and pattern that establishing a relative chronology or differentiating between possible production areas has so far proved very difficult.' We will continue our exploration of these incredible weavings in our next chapter of Rug Fact Friday next week. [Buy a digital subscription to read HALI 134.]( [Follow Us] [Facebook]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Instagram]( [Been forwarded this email and want to receive it regularly? Subscribe to this newsletter]( Copyright © 2023, Hali Publications Ltd., All rights reserved. [unsubscribe from this list]( [update subscription preferences](