Description
The Gonagkand pattern is arguably the most intricate and complex of all Caucasian field designs. It is almost certainly rooted in the ‘Lotto’ designs of sixteenth-century Turkish Ushak rugs from Turkey/Anatolia (an intricate lattice tracery pattern featuring conjoined hexagons; so called because of its depiction in paintings by the sixteenth-century artist Lorenzo Lotto).
Various bird or animal forms may be identified in Gonagkand patterns; whether these are intentional trompe l’oeil or accidental imagery on the part of the weaver. In this specific design, it is possible to see confronting human being forms. The Gonagkand carpets belongs to the Guba group of Azerbaijan’s Guba-Shirvan carpet-weaving center.
