1'4" x 1'9" Persian Tabriz Pictorial Rug | Praying Girl | 50 Raj 

This 1'4" x 1'9" Persian Tabriz pictorial rug is a small woven painting with a message. A young girl kneels in prayer, hands raised, and above her head the weaver knotted a line of Farsi script that reads, in essence, God bless and protect Papa and Mama. Woven at 50 Raj, approximately 400 knots per square inch, it has the fineness needed to render a face, flowing hair, and the folds of a robe in wool. Never used and in excellent condition, it comes with a certificate of authenticity. Few objects make a more moving gift for parents than a child's prayer for them, rendered permanent in wool.

Design and Motifs

The composition works like a framed portrait. The girl kneels in profile at the center, palms open in the traditional gesture of supplication, her gaze lifted toward a burst of light breaking into the upper corner. The woven inscription floats above her in flowing nastaliq-style script, a child's prayer for her father and mother. The pictorial field sits inside a thin pinstripe frame, then a navy main border of scrolling ivory palmettes and vine work with teal accents, the classic Tabriz border vocabulary enclosing a distinctly personal scene. Weaving a legible face at this scale is one of the harder tests of a Tabriz workshop, and this one passes with a calm, lifelike expression.

Color

The field is a deep aubergine brown, nearly black, chosen the way a portrait painter chooses a dark ground: it pushes the figure forward and makes every light tone glow. The girl's robe is worked in soft light blue with cream highlights that read as folds of fabric catching light, her skin in warm peach with the shading knotted in, her hair in fine strands of taupe and brown. Beneath her, a band of teal green anchors the scene like a floor plane. The border reverses the values, ivory ornament on navy, so the dark field sits inside a bright frame. The palette is quiet, warm, and completely unlike the reds of standard Persian production, which is part of this piece's charm.

Origin

Tabriz, in northwest Persia, measures its work in Raj, the count of knots per gereh of about 2.75 inches across the width. Commercial work runs 40 Raj; 50 Raj is fine workshop weaving, roughly 400 knots per square inch, the level where pictorial rugs become possible because curves, script, and facial features need that density to hold their shape. Tabriz has a long tradition of pictorial weaving alongside its medallion carpets, from portraits of poets to scenes like this one. Small pictorials of this quality were often woven as gifts and keepsakes, and they display beautifully framed or hung, a piece of Persian textile art at the scale of a painting.