A late Mamluk or early Ottoman geometric marble mosaic panel, Egypt, probably Cairo, 15th-17th century

designed with interlocking tones of ochre, black and white marble rectangles and polygons in an entwined geometric pattern

Ex-collection Max Palevsky (1924-2010).
UK art market, 1975.

Max Palevsky is remembered for his contributions to various fields, including computer science, politics and philanthropy as well as becoming director and board chairman of Rolling Stone magazine. Passionate about collecting, he was introduced to Islamic art through his ex-wife, Joan Palevsky, a close friend of Nasli Heermaneck, and thanks to whom Heermaneck's collection now forms a substantial part of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's holdings. 

In good condition (although fragmentary), some sections later replacements (notably filler replacements as evident by their different texture and colour), one section on border missing, some abraded along external edges, revers with breaks, striking composition and size, as viewed.
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This late Mamluk or early Ottoman mosaic panel is a beautiful example of the marble mosaics that adorned both the interiors and exteriors of the grand buildings of Mamluk Cairo. In Mamluk-period architecture, the boundaries between interior and exterior space are typically blurred: the qa’as and harems of Cairo's luxurious houses seamlessly transitioning into sunlit open balconies and lush inner courtyards.

Mamluk architects were keenly aware of this fluidity; the few architectural treatises that remain to us from this time suggest a preoccupation with an 'organic' city, where civic beauty was determined less by prestigious mega-projects than by the rich mosaic of the city as a whole.