Manifestation of " Catch & Take" Motifs in Safavid Carpets

The hunting & animal patterns is indeed one of the most important & effective motifs which can be seen in Persian Art since ancient times. For a long period of time, these motifs (which include religious & old mythological concepts, and tell about the geographical & natural human being environment, as well as his own desires, his domineeringness, and struggle for survival), have been designed & accomplished in various subjects and to their perfections by man of those ages in different arts. The importance of the hunting & animal motifs has caused these particular motifs to be repeated at any age. Meanwhile these repeated patterns have kept their own concepts & specifications regarding the variety of animals and compositions and at the same time have been rendered in innovative styles. This paper is trying to deal with one of the hunting & animals patterns in Persian Art namely: “Catch & Take” pattern. It also introduces some samples from the ancient ages till Safavid era, and finally the manifestation of these patterns from viewpoint of verity of animals & compositions have been studied in some carpets of Safavid era.