Rug
ClassificationsTextiles-floor coverings-rugs and mats
Culture
Navajo
Datec. 1900
Made AtUnited States, North America
MediumWool and pigment
Dimensions82 × 54 in. (208.3 × 137.2 cm)
Credit LineGift of Dennis Aigner
Object number2018.8.2
DescriptionThis Navajo wool rug is characterized by its high contrast central motif of a cross surrounded by four triangles. The origin of this piece is unidentified, but triangles, diamonds and crosses all held important meaning within Navajo culture, the first two representative of the Navajo homeland, and the latter synonymous with the whirling log or swastika. There is some evidence that the design was inspired by early sand paintings, but this has yet to be substantiated.Despite its modern connotations, the swastika motif 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.” Its use in Navajo textiles was probably more inspired by the introduction of the Asiatic motif by Western traders.
On View
Not on viewCollections
