Bordjalu Kazak rug

Woven in remote villages of the Caucus Mountains, Kazak rugs are renowned for their bold graphic design and purity of color. This Bordjalu Kazak variant draws three alternating latch-hook diamonds against a vibrant madder-red field. These large geometric elements derive from designs originating in kilims and flatweaves but have been rendered here in lustrous knotted pile. Smaller diamond and box devices animate the field in the dynamic manner of Caucasian folk weaving. The main border draws a repeat design of elements drawn in all three primary colors plus green. Though highly abstracted and reduced to pure angular geometry, these repeat elements and the motifs they form from negative space within the white border may be traced to classical ‘Holbein’ variants of the 16th century.