Rug
ClassificationsTextiles-floor coverings-rugs and mats
Culture
Navajo
Date1900-1910
Made AtUnited States
MediumWool and pigment
Dimensions51 × 80 in. (129.5 × 203.2 cm)
Credit LineGift of Dennis Aigner
Object number2017.9.1
DescriptionThough the peculiar double-headed arrows have not been seen in other such textiles, they can likely be understood as either split diamonds, the symbol for the Navajo homeland, or triangles, the meaning of which would vary contextually. The bold borders and general visual appearance make it likely that this textile comes from the Ganado area. Though he was not the first trader in the region, Juan Lorenzo Hubbell was the first to heavily influence the designs of the weavers he bought from in the areas surrounding his Ganado trading post. Where later traders like J.B. Moore took from Oriental designs, Hubbell drew on older Navajo ones. Small watercolor paintings of these rugs made from examples already in East Coast Collections, were brought to weavers to replicate. This rug is made from very smooth, canvas-like wool which almost certainly came from mills in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Many of the brilliant reds seen in Navajo weavings between 1890 and 1910 were made using this wool, but its relatively delicate nature made it a poor material for floor rugs. As for the swastika motif, despite its modern connotations it has been an auspicious symbol for at least thousands of years. For the Navajo, it was a figurative representation of the ‘whirling logs,’ a commonly depicted sand painting from the Night Chant and together with an axis with two legs—where the swastika instead has four—forms a visual pun of the Navajo mantra, “successfully attaining a ripe old age by daily spiritual renewal according to the universal beauty of the cosmos.”On View
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