Named for the Venetian painter Lorenzo Lotto (1480-1556), the Lotto rugs constitute a transitional stage between the first Ottoman period and the floral art that would dominate the rugs of the 16th and 17th Centuries. In the Lottos the field is activated by angular arabesques forming rows generally octagonal or rectangular motifs resembling grillwork. The arabesque, though created by an Islamic artist after the 7th Century conquest, did not make an appearance in Turkish carpets until the beginning of the 16th Century. Megerian rugs are the finest reproductions of these four century old designs.