The MAK Textiles and Carpets Collection at Museum für Angewandte Kunst

 

Silk Mamluk carpet, Cairo, 1st quarter 16th c.
© Marco Cappelletti e Giuseppe Miotto / Marco Cappelletti Studio

 
 

The MAK Textiles and Carpets Collection

March 25, 2026 — December 31, 2030

 

The MAK Textiles and Carpets Collection is one of the most valuable and extensive of its kind worldwide. It brings together objects from late antiquity to the present, from European to East Asian textiles.

The exquisite carpet collection, with a focus on unique Persian and Mamluk carpets from the 16th and 17th centuries, is one of the most splendid areas of this section of the collection.

The internationally renowned design studio Formafantasma was commissioned to design the new presentation of these gems of the MAK Collection. In contrast to the previous presentation that focused on the prestigious carpet collection, the carpets are contextualized with other textile highlights from the collection. With this broader curatorial concept, the MAK, for the first time, is also taking the diversity and richness of this part of the collection into account in the Permanent Collection.

 
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Exhibition Preview

 

Amédée Couder, “cashmere shawl” depicting the Nauruz festival, 1839 Execution: Jean Gaussen, Paris, Woven wool
© MAK/Christian Mendez

So-called “silk Mamluk carpet,” Cairo, 1st quarter 16th c. Warp and asymmetrical knots in silk, weft in wool
© Gerald Zugmann/MAK

Headboard from the state bed from Schloss Hof for Prince Eugene of Savoy, Coromandel Coast, India, ca. 1730 Painted and printed woven cotton fabric pieces embroidered and sewn with silk (appliqué embroidery), sewn-on passementeries, base fabric made of woven cotton with woven linen lining
© MAK/Georg Mayer

Noh theater robe (prob. Atsuita), Japan, 18th/19th c. Woven silk with metal threads; sewn
© MAK/Georg Mayer

Tapestry fragment depicting a banquet of “wild men” and the siege of a Castle of Love, Strasbourg, c. 1420, Woven tapestry fabric, linen warp, wool weft, partly embroidered with silk and linen
© MAK/Georg Mayer

Square decorative element (tabula) on tapestry-woven linen; face framed in vine leaves and grapes, Akhmim, Egypt, 4th–5th c., Wool warp, linen and wool weft; tapestry-woven, sewn
© MAK

Knitted jacket, prob. Italy, 1st half 17th c. Knitted silk and metal threads; sewn
© MAK/Branislav Djordjevic

Hanging, polychrome silk textile with prayer niches, hanging lamps, and geometric motifs, prob. Tunis, 17th c., Silk and metal threads, woven
© MAK/Christian Mendez

Millefleur niche carpet, North India, 18th c., Warp and weft in silk, asymmetrical knots in pashmina wool
© Gerald Zugmann/MAK

“Tintoretto carpet,” Ushak, ca. 1600, Warp, weft, and symmetrical knots in wool
© MAK

Antependium of the “Göss chasuble,” Göss, ca. 1260 Linen embroidered with silk
© MAK/Katrin Wißkirchen

 
 
 
 

Collection Highlights

 

Mandarin rank badge (buzi) with two white cranes, China, 18th to 19th century, silk, OR 28
© MAK

Landscape with bird design, Lahore, about 1600, OR 292
© MAK

Chessboard carpet, 16th century, wool, T 10512
© MAK

Niche/prayer carpet, Ladik, 18th century, wool, T 6636
© MAK

Bird Ushak carpet, Selendi?, 16th century, wool, T 10780
© MAK

Carpet with spiraling scrolls and animals, Herat?, mid 16th century, silk, wool, OR 311
© MAK

Detail of carpet with spiral tendrils and animal motives, Herat?, mid 16th century, silk wool, T 8334
© MAK

Polish carpet, Safavid Empire, 1st quarter of the 17th century, cotton, silk, OR 299
© MAK

Landscape with bird design, Lahore, about 1600, OR 292
© MAK

Niche/prayer carpet, Gördes, about 1800, wool, OR 295
© MAK

Mandarin rank badge (buzi) with lions, China, 19th century, silk, metal thread, OR 37
© MAK

Carpet with spiral tendrils and bird motives, Herat?, 2nd half of the 16th century, silk, wool, OR 312
© MAK

Ottoman prayer carpet, Turkey, 2nd half of the 16th century, silk, wool, cotton, T 8327
© MAK

Prayer carpet, Ladik, beginning of the 18th century, wool, OR 361
© MAK

Gift doily with a tiger, China, 17th to 18th century, silk, metal thread, T 9521
© MAK

Karabagh carpet with palmette design, Nagorno-Karabakh, end of the 18th century, Persia, cotton, wool, OR 294
© MAK

Mamluk carpet, Cairo, 1st half of the 16th century, wool, T 8382
© MAK

Mamluk carpet, Cairo, 1st half of the 16th century, wool, T 8345
© MAK

Medallion Ushak carpet, 16th century, wool, T 8343
© MAK

Kerman carpet with garden design, 1st half of the 17th century, cotton, silk, wool, metal thread, T 8542
© MAK

Prayer carpet, Ushak, 17th century, wool, OR 348
© MAK

 

Carpet, Khorasan, beginning of the 17th century, cotton, wool, T 8339
© MAK

Medallion Ushak carpet, about 1600, wool, OR 298
© MAK

Dragon carpet, Kuban?, 17th to 18th century, wool, OR 368
© MAK

Medallion carpet, Tabriz, 16th century, cotton, wool, T 8342
© MAK

Carpet with compartment design and medallions, Tabriz, 1st half of the 16th century, cotton, wool, T 10211
© MAK

Ushak carpet with star design, 1st half of the 17th century, wool, T 8384
© MAK

Carpet with spiral tendrils and animal motives, Herat?, mid 16th century, silk wool, T 8334
© MAK

Karabagh carpet with floral design, Nagorno-Karabakh, 18th century, Persia, cotton, wool, T 6584
© MAK

 
News 16Editorial TeamArt of the Ancestors, Steven G. Alpert, Asian Art, Island Southeast Asian Art, Oceanic Art, Asiatica, Ethnographica, Ethnographic Art, Art Collection, Fine Art, Primitive Art, Indonesian Art, Tribal Art, Eyes of the Ancestors, Dr. Reimar Schefold