For the 33rd edition of Modenantiquaria, Galleria Moshe Tabibnia, in collaboration with BIG Broker Insurance Group and Ciaccio Arte, was invited to set up a prestigious, small exhibition, museum-like in the quality of the artifacts selected for display.

14 ancient carpets were chosen for the exhibition. All of them are dated from 15th to 17th century, and they belong to the Tassara-Zaleski collection, as well as to Galleria Moshe Tabibnia’s collection. They all come from four geographical areas that were the dominion of four famous dynasties from the past: the Mamluks, the Ottomans, the Safavids and the Moghuls.

The two most ancient rugs chosen for the occasion date from the 15th century: a Mamluk carpet with an octagonal medallion, from 15th-century Egypt, and a “Holbein” small-pattern carpet from Western Anatolia, from the late 15th century, belonging to the Zaleski-Tassara collection.

Some of these rugs were previously displayed in Milan in 2006, during the exhibition “Pietre miliari nella storia del tappeto”, while others were displayed in 2017 at the “Serenissime Trame” exhibition, at the Ca’ d’Oro in Venice. All these rugs have been in high demand by museums and exhibition curators over the past few years, and a lot was written about them, since they are unique items, dating from several centuries ago. These rugs came to us from the Renaissance, a cultural movement that did not only animate Europe, but that also touched four the East’s most economically powerful dynasties, spanning large territories from Egypt to the Ottoman Empire, from Persia to India.